The Meddler
by Jovian Trilogy
Summary: Hermione is accidentally thrown into the past during the final battle, so she decides to make some changes hopefully for the better. But changing the future isn't going to be as easy as she thinks it will be. Time travel/ Marauder Era.
1. Prologue

**A/N: Yes yes I know another time travel fic, but I think this one is going to be different from most (I hope) . Hermione's not paired with anyone in this story, that comes in the sequel. I'm already on Chapter 13 of this fic so updates shouldn't be too spread out. Except for today, I'm putting up Chapter 1 as well because the prologue is super short. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, or any of it's characters or worlds, or just anything at all much as I wish that I did. **

**Enjoy! And let me know what you think.**

* * *

There was chaos everywhere. Everywhere she looked people were dying, and fighting, and bleeding. It was hard to tell who was fighting whom anymore because the curses just blazed around her. She locked her eyes on a fight ten feet away from her.

Ginny and Luna were battling with Bellatrix Lestrange and they were clearly in over their heads. Hermione rushed over, anger coursing through her veins and the scar on her arm seemed to pulse with remembrance of what this woman did to her.

Hermione pushed Ginny and Luna out of the way and cast a shield around herself and Bellatrix so no one could intervene. Out of the corner of her eye she saw various Weasley's trying to break through the shield to get to her but she shut them out of her mind and focused on the witch in front of her.

Hermione shot a cutting hex at Bellatrix and managed to cut her cheek though shallowly. She barely had time to put up a shield as a flame shot her way. Hermione cursed as part of her arm was burned. The fight ensued with curses and hexes, each growing deadlier than the last. Hermione took stock of her injuries on her mind and found she was worse off than she believed, though so was Bellatrix so she didn't let it deter her.

They both fired off spells at the same time, Hermione, an altering spell that she had been playing around with, and Bellatrix, the killing curse. The two curses had been fired in the same direction and both hit in the air between the dueling witches. That was when it happened. The two spells exploded like a bomb and the magic in the air meshed and backfired on the spell casters . Bellatrix let out a horrible scream and then fell to the ground, dead. Hermione felt pain erupt all around her and waited for the sweet release of death but all she felt was a feeling similar to apparition.

Then the world went black.


	2. Chapter 1

**A/N: So I'm putting up Chapter 1 today as well because the prologue is really short. I'll probably update once or twice a week until I run out of prewritten stuff, then it might be a little longer.**

**Still I own nothing**

* * *

Warm and comfortable were the first words that registered in her mind. And then confusion. The last time she was either of those words felt like a lifetime ago. Cold, and hungry, and pain were the words she had been more familiar with lately.

Hermione slowly opened her eyes and saw that she was in the infirmary at Hogwarts. That was good, she survived. She looked around for the Weasley's or Neville or anyone she knew but she saw that she was alone. That wasn't right. There should have been beds overflowing with people and people bustling everywhere. She was completely and utterly alone.

She spotted her wand and her beaded bag on the stand next her bed. She grabbed both breathing a sigh of relief at the thought of having a wand again. She swung her legs over the bed ignoring the jolt of pain that shot through her entire body when she moved. However, as her feet touched the ground and she was bracing herself to stand she was gently pushed back onto the bed.

"Oh no dear, none of that. Get back to bed, you'll be bedridden for a few weeks now, your body is severely undernourished and exhausted not to mention all the injuries I found. No you're staying right here," Madame Pomfrey scolded. Hermione looked up at her in shock and swung her legs back over the bed trying to placate her.

"Madame Pomfrey what happened? Where is everyone? I can't have been the only one injured. I need to find them. I need to find Harry-"

Hermione broke off and a sob escaped her throat as she remembered Hagrid carrying Harry's dead body out of the woods. She remembered him dying. She couldn't help the rest of the tears from leaving her eyes.

She felt arms encircle her gently holding her. "Oh hush now dear it's alright. The Headmaster will be here soon to talk to you, you can tell us what's happened and we can help you."

Hermione was slightly confused by her statement. Madame Pomfrey wasn't making much sense to her but everyone was out of sorts from the war so she decided to let it slide. She felt Pomfrey stand up and heard her rustling around for a few moments before Hermione opened her eyes.

"Here dear drink these. The blue one will help your exhaustion-magical and physical, the purple one is for malnutrition and it has vitamins, the green one will help with the burns and shallow wounds and the clear is a general pain reliever. You have to take them all twice a day for three weeks. You were also quite restless in your sleep so I'll bring you a Dreamless Sleeping Potion to take at night if you so choose."

Hermione's eyes bulged as Madame Pomfrey listed all the potions that she had to take. Pomfrey seemed to seemed to notice her expression and chuckled slightly.

"I know it seems like a lot but you were in a right state when you got here. For a while we weren't sure if you were going to make it, you've been out for three days now," She was interrupted as the infirmary door opened and Hermione saw someone walking towards them out of the corner of her eye.

"Ah, here comes Professor Dumbledore now."

Hermione did a double take and tightened her grip on her wand. Her breathing started to speed up and she started thinking of escape plans.

"What's going on? Who are you? Where am I?" Hermione fired off at a rapid speed. She was trying hard not to panic but she was looking at her dead Headmaster and none of her friends were around.

"Calm down my dear," Dumbledore's voice washed over her. She was calmed by him and even though he was dead and she had no clue what was happening she still felt her breathing slowed down to a normal pace. "There you go, much better. Now as for who I am, I am Albus Dumbledore Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, which is also where you are.

"As for what happened I think you could probably answer that better than I could. I was up in my office when I was alerted that someone had penetrated the wards. Thinking it could be Death Eaters I called Professor McGonagall and we rushed down. It was 2 o'clock in the morning so the hall was empty save you. You were laying on the floor right in front of the Head Table."

Hermione looked shocked and tried to process what exactly was happening. He seemed like he was genuinely telling the truth. But Death Eaters could obviously lie, although she has no clue how they could get his hair, or how this would have happened with a war going on. And there was no denying that she was in Hogwarts, you couldn't mistake the magic that flowed through the walls of the ancient castle.

"So I just appeared here? Out of thin air? And there was no one here, no signs of a battle, no-" Dumbledore quickly cut her off

"Miss I'm terribly sorry but you were alone."

"Do you not know me?" Hermione asked trying to piece the puzzle together. When Dumbledore shook his head Hermione took a deep breath and asked a question that had the potential to change everything. "Professor Dumbledore I'm going to need you to tell me that date, including the year."

Dumbledore looked shocked for a second and then he looked understanding.

"October 2nd 1977."

Hermione nodded as the information sunk in. She felt dread as everyone she knew and loved either didn't know who she was or wouldn't be alive for another five years and even then she would be the same age as their parents. They would never know her the way she knew them. She was completely and utterly alone. However, the more she thought about her situation, she thought that maybe it wasn't a bad thing.

Hermione knew the names of Voldemort's most valued Death Eaters. She knew how to fight them and more importantly, she knew how to fight _him_. Hermione knew the locations of almost every single Horcrux and how to destroy them. She would change the future for the better no matter what it cost her. She would save everyone. She would be the power that he knows not.

* * *

Hermione had been at Hogwarts for over a week now and she was still bed ridden. Pomfrey had allowed her a walk once every two days around the halls while everyone was in class, with Professor Dumbledore.

Other than her twenty minute walks she would write everything down in a journal that she had requested from Dumbledore a few days ago. She spent her time writing down everything she could remember from dates of deaths, to where the Horcrux's were located.

Hermione closed her journal for the day and thought back to Dumbledore's reaction when he saw her face. Pomfrey couldn't tell but Dumbledore could. He knew what she was going to do. He could see the determination in her eyes, the way her jaw tightened. She also refused to tell him her last name, claiming that she couldn't remember it but they both knew that was a lie. She didn't know how everything would end up and she didn't want anything tied to her in her real time.

Hermione had expected him to give her a big speal about not meddling with time and letting nature run its course but he said nothing. He just nodded at her with an understanding look in his eyes. Hermione accepted it but was confused until she received her journal with the following note inside.

_Hermione,_

_While I must warn you about the path that you are going to take I will not try and sway your decision. I saw the state you were in and the look in your eyes, if you are this determined to change things than I will not stand in your way. However, I must give you this piece of advice: Bad things happen to those who meddle with time, and you can never predict how things will turn out. I am not going to pry for details and I'm not going to pretend to know what has happened in the future. I understand your need to change things that go wrong in life, I have a few things that I would like to go back and change. Just know that you aren't alone in your quest. Hogwarts will always help those who ask for it._

From then on Hermione and Dumbledore had an understanding with each other. On their walks they would talk about happier times without giving out specific names. They would reminisce on the better times in their lives and breeze past the painful ones.

Since she had arrived Hermione had only been in contact with Dumbledore, one house elf named Plip, and Pomfrey who just stared at her in sympathy especially when Hermione had to give her full medical history.

However, on the night of the full moon, Professor Dumbledore walked into the infirmary in the bright hours of the morning, waking Hermione up who was still on edge and practicing constant vigilance from the war. It looked as if Dumbledore was supporting someone heavily and Pomfrey came out of her back room as if she was expecting this.

It wasn't until Hermione saw the face of the person and looked out the window that it clicked in her brain.

It was a full moon.

And the man was Remus J Lupin.


	3. Chapter 2

**A/N: Thanks to all that read, favorited, and or reviewed. Here's the next chapter for you.**

**Also, I might be interested in a beta for this story, so PM me if you might be interested.**

**Disclaimer: I own next to nothing**

* * *

He hadn't looked at her, but Hermione had noticed him. It was hard looking at him considering the last time that she saw him he was looking at her with a cold stare, no life in his eyes. Hermione started to hyperventilate again before she remembered that right now, he was alive. He was alive and if she had anything to do with it he would stay that way until a very old age.

And then another thought hit Hermione. If Remus was here so were the others. James, Sirius, Lily, _Peter._ It would take everything in Hermione not to kill him when she saw him. Knowing all the pain that he caused her best friend. Hermione wondered who else was here. If there were people from the order here then there were definitely Death Eaters , she knew that they would all be alive right now but she hadn't counted on them actually being in Hogwarts with her.

Hermione pulled out her notebook again and silently conjured a red ribbon bookmark for the brown leather notebook. She smiled in victory when the ribbon binded itself to the top of the book halfway through the pages.

On the first page she wrote _Harry_ at the top. She flipped to the next page and wrote _Lily_ and then _James_ on the next. She continued to do that with the following names: _Sirius, Remus, Snape, Pettigrew, Regulus, Dumbledore, Frank&Alice, Prewett Brothers_. Then she went back to Harry's page and wrote everything she knew that would help her or that she could change. She proceeded to do this with every person whose name she wrote.

Deciding that it was enough for the night Hermione closed the book again warding it this time so that no one could 'accidentally' open it and learn what would have been their fate. She slept well for the first time that night thinking of how she could change things for the better.

* * *

It just so happened that last night's full moon fell on a Friday which meant that when Hermione opened her eyes on Saturday morning and looked two beds over she saw not only Remus but two other figures as well.

None of them paid her any attention, instead the three were talking and laughing about Merlin knows what.

Hermione studied the two figures and it didn't take her long to figure out that it was James Potter and Sirius Black. Hermione looked at James for all of two seconds before being reminded of Harry so she took to studying Sirius.

She has happy to note that there were no tattoos on him, and he looked healthy and happy. The biggest change however was in his eyes. When she had met him in her third year they'd been almost black and completely lifeless and they never seemed to regain any life even in her fifth year.

However, now they were shining with happiness and mirth. They were still dark gray but they held no pain like the eyes of the Sirius Black she knew.

Hermione's eyes trailed over to Remus. He looked tired still, but there had been a full moon last night. His hair was still sandy brown and there were no graying hairs that she could spot. He still had a few scars but nowhere near the amount when she had met him. He looked happy and optimistic, a far cry from the broken man she had known.

Hermione's resolve stiffened and she was even more determined to make sure that they were not subject to the decade of abuse and loneliness that they were forced to endure.

And then a light bulb went off in her mind. She had learned the wolfsbane potion after her sixth year when Snape had turned traitor and Hermione hadn't been sure if he had any other source for the potion, and had given Professor Lupin a year supply in July before she had left on her expedition across the country. To her knowledge it had worked fine.

She opened her notebook that quickly began to hold her life in it, and started writing down the ingredients and instructions for that potion, and then she started in on a few other tricky ones.

She had closed her book when she decided to address the eyes that had been on her for the past five minutes. She turned her head to the left and smiled at the three boys.

"Hello," she greeted them. They all smiled back at her.

"Hi there. Are you new here? I've never seen you around before," Sirius asked her.

"Yes I am. I was homeschooled but my parents fell ill so I decided to complete my last year at Hogwarts," she rattled off the cover story she and Dumbledore had created. The boys seemed to believe her and didn't ask any other questions.

"Well welcome to Hogwarts," Sirius grinned at her. "I'm Sirius, that lump in the bed is Remus and this lazy git here is James."

"Nice to meet you. My name's Hermione."

James looked like he was about to ask her a question but he was interrupted by the entrance of Madame Pomrey who was carrying a tray of potions with a house elf trailing behind her with Hermione's breakfast.

She first handed Remus a clear potion that Hermione knew was a pain reliever.

"Drink that up Mr. Lupin. You'll be free to go by dinner time tonight."

Then she moved towards Hermione with her potions and Hermione cringed. No matter how many times she took them they still tasted as vile as the first time.

"Oh none of that Hermione you know you have to take them if you ever want to get out of here," Madame Pomfrey commented when she noticed Hermione's face. Hermione rolled her eyes and downed the potions like they were shots. After accepting the glass of water from Pomfrey she took the breakfast tray from the house elf, Plip.

"Thank you Plip," Hermione nodded towards the young house elf. He smiled and showed off his big blue eyes.

"You's welcome Miss Herms."

Hermione laughed at his pronunciation of her name as he walked away. Plip was a young house elf and had just started working at Hogwarts. He had taken a liking to Hermione and sometimes they would sit and chat when he had nothing to do and Hermione enjoyed his company greatly.

Hermione started eating her small bowl of oatmeal, toast and cup of orange juice. It was by no means a large breakfast but Hermione still had trouble keeping food down after being starving for so long.

She knew the three boys were still staring at her but she was too focused on her food. After she had finished the oatmeal she turned back to the boys still nibbling on her toast.

"So why are you in here?" This time is was Remus who asked her.

"Why are you?" Hermione countered knowing he wouldn't tell her the truth. Remus just chuckled at her.

"Touché."

As he was talking Dumbledore walked in.

"Ah Mr. Lupin good to see you awake and well once more. Are you ready to go Hermione?" Remus smiled at Dumbledore as Hermione nodded.

She grabbed her notebook and wand and slipped her trainers on. She was still wearing the jeans and zip up she had worn during the battle, they had been cleaned but they reminded her of home and she couldn't bring herself to change.

She could still feel the trio's eyes on her as she exited with Dumbledore.

"So did you have anywhere in mind my dear?" Dumbledore asked her kindly.

"I have a few potions that I would like to make. One in particular would help a certain student. There is a tapestry of Barnabas teaching trolls how to dance. That's where I would like to go."

Dumbledore nodded and they started to walk. "You know you aren't supposed to be brewing potions yet Hermione."

Hermione rolled her eyes at the ridiculous rules she had been forced to follow. Sure she had almost died but she was fine now, she barely felt more than a dull ache and that was only when she was on her feet for a long time. Madame Pomfrey, bless her, was just being over protective.

"I know but I really am fine Headmaster. I've had plenty of time to recover and heal. I'm going spare in there, the only thing I do is talk to Plip. I've written almost everything there is to write in this notebook. I'm ready to start and I think brewing some potions is starting small."

Dumbledore said nothing as they arrived outside the Room of Requirement. She walked back and forth three times thinking of a room equipped with everything she needed to make her desired potions.

She smiled as she walked in and saw all the wolfsbane ingredients laid out next to a cauldron that was sitting on top of a flame. She walked over and started to prepare her potion.

"It's called Wolfsbane. I'm making it for Remus. It allows him to keep his mind while he is in wolf form. He won't harm anyone anymore. I believe in this time it is still only a theory."

"Brilliant my dear. Let's get started."


	4. Chapter 3

**A/N: So here is chapter 3 for you all! I hope you enjoy it. Once again thank you to anyone who reviewed/favorited/followed, I love you all. **

**A big thank you to my new Beta MSupernatural! You rock thank you so much.**

**As always, I own nothing, so just enjoy and let me know what you think**

* * *

Remus was already gone from the hospital wing when Hermione made her way back. Dumbledore had left her at the door and Hermione went straight to her bed, exhausted from the potion making. She ignored Pomfrey's scolds and took the offered potions before crawling under her covers. She decided against writing in her notebook that day, glad that she actually did something productive for once.

Plip brought Hermione her dinner and she ate in silence, falling asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow. Maybe Pomfrey was right about her not being strong yet, but she certainly wouldn't admit that to her or stop working now that she started.

The next week passed in boredom and in a routine. She would wake up, eat and take her potions, talk to Plip, go to the Room of Requirement, come back, take her potions, eat and then sleep. Sometimes she would fall asleep right away, other times she would stay up the entire night updating her journal or thinking about Harry and Ron.

She missed them so much it hurt. She could still remember every last detail about them as if she had seen them just yesterday. Hermione had thought that, with time, she would maybe forget small details and the pain would lessen as time went by, but, so far, no such thing had happened. Still she felt as if she had just watched Hagrid carrying Harry's dead body out of the forest only two minutes ago instead of over two weeks. She never imagined that she would lose him, or that she would be thrown into the past with no one by her side.

Suddenly, she was interrupted from her daily 'pity party' by a loud commotion making its way into the Hospital Wing.

"All I'm saying is that we could avoid a lot of trips to Pomfrey if you just learned how to walk away."

"That's rich coming from you, Padfoot!" Hermione recognized the first voice as Sirius, though the second one she didn't recognize. She was pretty sure it was James, though.

"Both of you are incapable of walking away from someone when they taunt someone you love. Now stop arguing and open the door, I think Wormtail passed out and he's not exactly a feather," this time she knew it was Remus that was speaking, it was easy to recognize one of her favorite professor's voice.

Before she could even decide if she wanted to pretend to be sleeping, the quartet loudly burst into the Hospital Wing. Madam Pomfrey, having heard them, was already rushing out of her back room to assist the four, shaking her head.

They seemed to take no notice of Hermione so she took the time to study them. The rat was unconscious, Remus just had a split lip and a black eye, while Sirius had a cut on his arm and was walking with a slight limp and James was bleeding from his leg and looked like he had a slight burn on his arm.

Satisfied that there was nothing life threatening done to them, Hermione relaxed slightly. Though she wondered where the people who did this to them were.

"Oh look, it's you four again." The healer said, exasperated. "Am I correct in assuming your assailants won't be joining you here?" Pomfrey did not sound happy. She also did not sound like this was an uncommon experience. Whoever they were, Pomfrey supposed that the assailants healed themselves in their dorms to avoid detection. It was sneaky so she supposed she shouldn't be too surprised.

"We didn't start it this time, really! And no of course not," James replied for the group. Pomfrey just clucked her tongue, and started using her spells to check on the boys, rapidly mending all illments they had. Hermione lost interest and went back to her thoughts, but, soon enough, she heard someone walk towards her.

She looked up and saw Sirius standing next to her bed.

"Back already?" Hermione asked cheekily.

"Well, it looks like you haven't even left yet. How much longer do you have left in here?" He asked with a smirk.

"Two more days. But who's counting?" Hermione joked. It was funny how she seemed to be at ease around the boy. Even though her mind told her that was Sirius, Harry's godfather, who she came to love as a surrogate uncle, Hermione saw so many differences in him that she barely acknowledged that the man who escaped Azkaban and this charming boy were the same person.

"Do you know what House and classes you'll be in?" Sirius asked, using his hands to lift himself up as he sat on the bed next to hers.

"I'm in Gryffindor. I asked Dumbledore to sort me privately so I don't have hundreds of people staring at me like I'm a freak show." Hermione said, simply. She closed her notebook and put it aside carefully. "I'm in DADA, Potions, Charms, Transfiguration, Herbology, Arithmancy and Ancient Runes. Dumbledore was kind enough to get all of my supplies for me since I'm not allowed to leave the castle yet."

Sirius sent her another of his charming grins and Hermione smiled cheekily at him.

"Well, love, how about, in two days time, when you're finally allowed out of this prison, the four of us walk you around the grounds and give you a real tour of Hogwarts?" Sirius asked her, still wearing his grin.

Hermione smiled at him, "That would be lovely, thank you." After a pause, something inside her head seemed to click, so Hermione decided to ask, "Why are you all in here, Sirius?"

The boy didn't exactly lose his cool, but Hermione definitely saw his grin waver a bit and his eyes narrow just a bit. He was back to his old, charming self so fast that Hermione wondered if she had only imagined it.

"Well, some Slytherins were calling James and I blood traitors and that's fine, we're used to it." He said, with a humorless chuckle. Then, he lost his grin and his beautiful grey eyes visibly darkened. "But then, they called Lily, a girl James has been in love with since first year, a Mudblood and he kind of flipped. And we of course backed him up." Sirius finished. He wasn't exactly looking at Hermione, but at a point over her head. She could feel his anger, he was almost fuming.

"Of course," Hermione paused before asking another question sheepishly, "So Slytherins are bad guys? And what did they mean by blood traitors? I was homeschooled and only my mum was a witch, so I'm not very up to date on wizard slangs." she figured playing dumb was the best way to get a lot of information out and seem innocent at the same time. Sirius looked at her, relaxing a bit.

"Well most Slytherins are. That House has produced some of the most evil wizards ever. But they aren't always bad." Sirius seemed thoughtful, so Hermione just waited. "They called us blood traitors because we're both Purebloods, but that doesn't mean anything to us. We couldn't care less what kind of parents someone has, you know." He sighed and us How magical your parents are doesn't determine what kind of person you are to us. To some people it does. You've heard of You-Know-Who right?" Sirius asked suddenly way more serious than he had been. Hermione almost snorted at the irony.

"You mean Voldemort? Yeah I've heard of him," Hermione said dryly. She resisted rolling her eyes when Sirius shuddered at the name. Harry was right, that is really annoying.

"Well, he's gained a lot of support from the British Pureblood families, and they have kids here who believe all the garbage that he spews off." Sirius said, sarkly. "Death Eaters they're called. They've gained a lot of power over the last year and we're headed towards a war if you ask me."

Suddenly, James called Sirius back over to them. Sirius excused himself, back to the charming boy façade. He walked away with a smile and a promise to rescue her in two days.

* * *

Two days later, Hermione was alone in the Hospital Wing, anxiously awaiting Pomfrey to release her so that she could finally leave. She was going over her notes when Madam Pomfrey finally walked in with Dumbledore and a girl who Hermione could only guess was Lily Evans. When she looked at her in the eye, though, there was no denying it. She had only seen eyes that green once before, on her best friend. She was looking at Harry's mum.

Lily smiled at her as Professor Dumbledore introduced them.

"Lily, this is Hermione, she was homeschooled before and she will be joining us for her seventh year. Since she's also in Gryffindor," Dumbledore's eyes twinkled. "I thought that you could show her to her dormitory. Hermione, this is Lily Evans, Head Girl. Once you take your potions, Madam Pomfrey said that you could go." He then left, leaving the two girls smiling at each other.

Hermione quickly took her potions and left with a promise to take it easy, which she knew she would break. Hermione and Lily made polite small talk as they made their way to Gryffindor tower. In that time, Hermione learned that Lily's favorite subject was Charms and that James was a git. Hermione was a bit surprised to hear what Lily thought of her future husband, but then again she knew they didn't get together until this year. She told Lily what she told James, Sirius and Remus about her parents, and like the boys, she didn't pry.

There were five beds in the girls' dorm and one of them had books and a set of robes at the bottom, and didn't look slept in, so Hermione could only assume it was hers. Two of the other beds were occupied and she could hear the shower running in the bathroom, so Hermione guessed that's where the last girl was.

"Ok this is your bed Hermione," she pointed to the bed with the books on the bottom. "We have the same schedule except you have a free period while I have History of Magic," Lily handed Hermione her schedule and she wanted to cringe at the fact that she had double potions with the Slytherins yet again.

"Thank you, Lily." Hermione said, smiling warmly at her best friend's mother. She then noticed that the two girls sat on their bed were looking at her with curiosity. Lily also seemed to notice the two girls staring at Hermione and began introductions.

"Girls, this is Hermione. Remember the one, Dumbledore told me about? She just transferred here. She was homeschooled before now." Lily said, smiling back at Hermione.

Lily pointed to a tall girl with subtle curves, long straight blonde hair and silver blue eyes first. "Hermione, this is Marlene McKinnon, and that is Hestia Jones," the second girl had curly, light brown hair that fell to her shoulders and chocolate brown eyes, who was about the same height as Hermione.

"Nice to meet you," as she was talking the third girl came out of the bathroom dressed in Muggle clothes and wet hair. Hermione instantly knew who she was and had to stop herself from saying her name before Lily introduced them.

"Hermione this is Alice Caldwell. Alice, this is Hermione."

As Alice told Hermione it was nice to meet her, Hermione took the time to study her. She was short, about two inches shorter than Hermione, and of average weight. Her honey colored eyes were warm and her face matched Neville's almost exactly. She had wavy dark brown hair that fell to the middle of her back. She looked the picture of innocence and Hermione had to hold back from tearing up when thinking about her old fate.

"Alright, well, I'm off girls. I'll see you tomorrow afternoon," Alice said as she left for the common room. Hermione looked to Lily who started explaining.

"Alice is dating Frank Longbottom who graduated last year. He's in Auror training but they have a break this weekend and Alice got permission to go see him."

Hermione nodded and decided she had better start settling in. She reached into her beaded bag and pulled out all the clothes she had in there, as well as some of the lighter books she had in there, though those weren't many.

Ignoring the amazed looks from the girls, Hermione started sorting through her things quietly, putting them in the dresser next to her bed. She wet through the books fairly quickly but decided to take her time with the clothes. She felt tears prick her eyes when she got to the boys clothes, but quickly shoved them back into her bag and taking a deep breath.

She was about to look through the course books when she spotted something else in the beaded bag. The Marauder's Map.

That was weird, she thought. She wasn't really sure how she could have it if James had his as well. Hermione resigned herself to the fact that she didn't know enough about time travel and the laws surrounding it. She would have to do more research.

Deciding to just take it as a victory, Hermione smiled, wishing she had the invisibility cloak as well but she would take what she could get. The girls were still looking at her so Hermione decided she needed to get out of there.

"Well, it was nice meeting you all but I promised some people that they could give me a tour and I think they may be waiting for me." She tried to smile, but she knew it came out as a frown. "See you later."

She quickly exited the room and checked the map in the hall, and seeing the boys in the common room headed down the stairs.

"Hermione!" It was Remus that spotted her first. "We went to get you but you weren't there so we decided to wait here for you."

"Dumbledore had Lily show me to the common room so I could see where I would be sleeping." She said with a small smile. "I just finished unpacking so I thought I'd look for you." Before she knew it, she was sandwiched between James and Sirius with Remus walking ahead of them.

"Hey, where's Pettigrew?" she tried to keep the disgust out of her voice.

"He had a study session with the Hufflepuffs for Charms. He said he was looking forward to meeting you though," Sirius answered for her.

"Me as well." She faked a chuckle. "Now, where to boys?" The three boys smirked before leading her out of the portrait hole.

They walked around the lake a few times making idle chit-chat before stopping under a tree that Hermione often sat under with Harry and Ron She tried not to think about it, as she knew it would only make her sad. Not two seconds after they had sat down, a group of Slytherins came up to them.

At the front of the pack Hermione noticed Severus Snape and Bellatrix. Great.

"Oh look, the blood traitors got themselves a new whore," it wasn't Snape who spoke but Bellatrix.

All three boys jumped up with their wands out in her defense.

"Oh, how cute, they want to protect their whore! Is she a Mudblood like the rest of the trash you hang around with?" Bellatrix taunted, cackling madly.

"Shut the hell up Black, you're the one that's hanging around with crazy scum!" Sirius threw back. Hermione winced knowing that it wouldn't end well, but not wanting to get involved.

And then the fight started.

Hermione couldn't remember the exact details of the fight. All she knew was that Bellatrix threw a stunner at Sirius and then all hell broke loose.

Remus went to enervate Sirius while Hermione and James threw curses back.

Next thing she knew, there were two Slytherins unconscious on the ground near her and James, while the other Slytherins, including Snape with a deep cut on his face and Bellatrix with a bloody nose, ran away. The boys were looking at her like she was the daughter of Merlin.

"What?" she asked, offended.

"Nothing, you're just really good at dueling," James answered, cheerfully.

"I've had a lot of practice." She said, darkly.

"Can you teach us how to duel like that? Defense class isn't enough, we need to learn how to really defend ourselves if we want to make it out of this war alive," James asked as they walked back to the common room and Hermione was reminded of Harry in their fifth year. For the hundredth time that day, Hermione had to control herself not to cry. The fact that James was simply a more muscled and taller version of her best friend didn't help either.

"I don't know, James," Hermione answered back as Remus gave the password to get in the Common Room.

"Please, Hermione, I'm sure you're a great teacher and we'll always listen to you and we won't ask any questions," James pleaded some more, in such an adorable way that Hermione chuckled.

"I'm sure you'll ask questions and won't always listen but fine, I'll do it. You can't tell anyone about this, ok?" Hermione caved.

They walked over to an empty part of the Common Room not noticing Lily and the other girls staring at them.

"What about Peter?" Remus asked. Hermione was torn, on one hand she didn't want to teach him but on the other hand he may not have turned yet and she didn't want to be the reason he turned.

"Tell him he's more than welcome but that it's going to be hard and he may not be able to keep up if he has trouble in regular classes," Hermione hoped he would just decide not to come.

"Deal?" She asked the three.

"Deal," they all answered back, high-fiving each other and grinning like loons.

"Good. We start tomorrow after lunch." She said, smiling.


	5. Chapter 4

**A/N: Here is Chapter 4! As always thanks to anyone who ****reviewed or favorited or is following this story. And a huge thank you to my lovely beta MSupernatural, couldn't do it without you. So, this chapter isn't completely a filler, but it more sets up the relationships in the story, but I hope you still like it.**

**Disclaimer: I sadly own nothing because I am not JK Rowling, I am a poor college student who spends her free time writing.**

* * *

Lily watched as the boys joked around with Hermione. She was especially watching James and his attitude towards the new girl. He was being a normal guy, and, as far as she could tell, he hadn't blown up his ego around her, like he normally did when she was around. For once his hair didn't look like he'd just gotten off a broom, and he certainly hadn't puffed his chest out.

"Lily?" Marlene got her attention when she noticed that Lily hadn't been paying attention to their conversation at all.

"Look at them," she nodded her head towards the Marauder's with a frown. "They're acting normal around her. They haven't exaggeratedly asked her out or played a prank on her." Lily wasn't exactly annoyed by that fact. She couldn't really name what she was feeling, but something was surely bugging her.

"She's been out of the hospital for a day, Lily!" Marlene answered her. "But I guess she does seem strange." She seemed thoughtful, her face also becoming a frown as the girls stared at the Marauders chatting with the new girl. "Did you see how she just pulled all of that stuff out of her bag? I've read about that charm, it's bloody difficult to perform! And the clothes she had, some of them were guys clothing. I think there is more to her than we know," Marlene concluded.

"Come on, guys, she's clearly been through a lot." Hestia intervened, going back to the homework she had previously been working on. "Let's leave the poor girl alone, give her some privacy," both girls nodded, but Lily couldn't help herself from glancing at them every so often.

Before dinner, Hermione went back upstairs to wash up quickly. When she came out of the bathroom, the girls were there and insisted that Hermione join them for dinner. Even though that wasn't what she had in mind, Hermione was too tired to resist. She sighed and followed the girls out.

Dinner was interesting with Hermione sitting in between the Marauders and the girls. On her left sat Sirius and on her right sat Lily. Peter Pettigrew sat across from her and Hermione spent most of dinner trying to figure out if he had betrayed them yet. She tried to see anything that could be considered suspicious, but as she didn't know the boy well, she wasn't getting very far.

Lily spent the entire dinner studying Hermione and ignoring James who had finally gone back to trying to get her attention. Hermione found that, even though he was endearing in his pestering Lily, James was distracting her when he just kept talking, so she decided to intervene.

"James, be quiet, please. I'm trying to concentrate," Hermione said as politely as possible. He turned his head towards her, his eyes a bit wide.

"Sorry, Hermione," James looked sheepish as he turned to Remus and began talking to him. All the girls looked shocked at the fact that Hermione got James to be quiet, none more so than Lily.

"So Peter, how was your study session?" Hermione turned her attention to Peter. Maybe she had to be a bit more incisive. He blushed a little bit but that could have been because he was embarrassed at needing help. He stuttered for a few seconds before answering Hermione.

"Uh, it was good, fine... Helpful, I guess..." He answered shortly. Hermione narrowed her eyes but decided to give him another chance since she could just be making him nervous.

"What were you studying? I'm fairly good at charms, so, if you still need some help, I'd be glad to help you out." She gave him a short smile, trying to show him he didn't have to worry about her. If he didn't have anything to hide, that is.

"Uh, it was... uhm" He seemed lost in thought. "Warding charms, but I... uh, did well, I think I got the hang of it now, but thanks for the offer," Hermione thought he seemed genuine but she really couldn't tell.

Hermione narrowed her eyes again as he dropped his fork to his food and began shoveling it into his mouth. She looked away and saw Remus looked slightly off put. Maybe not suspicious completely, but it was something she could work with. Hermione noticed Marlene seemed slightly wary as well but she couldn't tell if it was because of her or Peter.

Hermione shook off her suspicions and turned to Sirius.

"Who's better at Transfiguration, James or you?" If Sirius seemed shocked or confused by the question, he didn't show it.

"That would be James. It's the only subject he's not a complete tosser in." Sirius snorted.

"Hey! I can whip your butt in any class any time, I just choose not to," James defended himself.

"Yeah, choose," Remus snorted from next to James, deciding to annoy his friend a bit too. James ruffled, crossing his arms over his chest and pouting childishly. Remus and Sirius chuckled at their friend.

"I'm sure you're great, James. After breakfast tomorrow I'm going to need you to come with me. I need your help with something," Hermione looked at him and smiled sweetly.

"Sure thing, Hermione." he answered back, grinning. Hermione couldn't ignore how much he looked like Harry, and she felt her heart constrict a bit.

The rest of dinner went by peacefully and, as soon as possible, Hermione left with the girls to head back to the Gryffindor tower. Hermione showered still relishing in the fact that there was a thing called hot water again and quickly changed into long pajamas, making sure her scar was covered.

When she walked out of the bathroom the three girls were sitting up in their beds and Hermione, recognizing the posture from Lavender and Parvati, instantly knew what was coming and braced herself.

"So you seem pretty cozy with the Marauders," Marlene started the conversation. Hermione decided playing dumb was her best course of action.

"The who?"

"The Marauder's. James, Sirius, Remus and Peter." Marlene said, with a grin. "They play pranks on people, almost always on the ones who deserve it, but still they play a lot of pranks... What, they didn't tell you all about it?" Marlene sounded surprised.

"Well, I only just met Peter, considering he was absent the first time I met the boys and unconscious the second time." She tried to sound occasional and thoughtful. "But no they didn't mention anything about pranks," this time all three girls looks surprised.

"Why was he unconscious? Peter, I mean," Hestia asked her.

"Some Slytherins called Lily a degrading word in front of them and James got angry and there was a fight." Hermione said, purposefully avoiding the red head when she said it.

"What?" Lily sounded surprised. James had been... angry for her?

"Yeah. From what Madame Pomfrey said it's not uncommon. Why'd you sound surprised?" Hermione asked, still playing the dumb game. She moved so as to sit on her bed.

"It's just not something that James would do and not seek immediate recognition for and demand that I go out with him." Lily said with a frown.

"I don't see what you mean." Hermione was trying not to get to protective over the boys, but Lily's tone upset her a bit. "They all have been perfectly nice to me and said nothing but nice things about you girls." She said calmly. "Principally James." She added, this time holding the red head's surprised gaze. "It doesn't surprise me that any of them would defend your honor. I don't think you give them enough credit." The other girls seemed at a loss of words, until Lily frowned again.

"Yeah, well, even if he suddenly is a nice guy, it doesn't mean I'll go out with him," Lily said stubbornly, crossing her arms for effect.

"And why not?" Hermione was close to fuming, and she was trying hard not to get too worked up. She relaxed and gave Lily a smirk. "Clearly he likes you, and even though you're trying really hard to deny it, and maybe you haven't even accepted it yourself, but I think you like him too."

The three girls looked shocked and Lily turned red.

"What, I don't, no. You're wrong Hermione," Lily stammered out.

"Sure I am," Hermione smirked back, enjoying her effect on the other girl.

"Well," Hestia started to change the subject. "As we were saying before, it's just strange that you're so cozy with them. They are good people and generally nice, but they don't usually let people into their fold, they're very secretive."

"We understand each other," Hermione smiled wistfully, "And I was never one for girlfriends. Back home, my two best friends were boys. It's familiar, I guess." She said, fondly remembering her boys.

"Well, now you have girlfriends too"" Lily smiled at her deciding that all she needed was some friends.

"Thank you," Hermione said genuinely. She wasn't very surprised, she deep inside knew that Lily was a kind person, while Hermione herself usually came off as cold or strange to most people, which was why they may have acted differently towards her.

"Do you miss them? Your friends from back home?" Marlene asked her, eyeing her with curiosity.

"With all my heart." She concluded

* * *

Hermione woke bright and early after dreams filled with memories of Harry and Ron. Surely talking about them before going to bed hadn't been the best of the ideas. Hermione felt shaken and alone, she missed her friends and her home terribly. She had even silenced her curtains after waking Lily up once, and she didn't want to do it again.

She took a cold shower trying to wake herself up and extinguish the dread that had installed inside her stomach, but quickly changed the water to warm again.

She changed into a pair of gray workout pants and a loose yellow T-shirt, transfiguring an old pillow into sneakers and throwing a plain white zip up on. She haphazardly braided her hair before walking to the boy's side of the dorms.

Hermione walked over to James' bed and couldn't suppress a smile when she saw him. He and Harry slept, albeit peacefully, sprawled on the bed. She gently shook him until he woke up. His warm, hazel eyes blinked a few times until he remembered his promise to help her and stood up with a groan, causing Hermione to chuckle silently. Unhappily, he dressed and joined her for breakfast in the early hour, leaving the other three Marauders still sleeping peacefully.

Forty minutes later, James was standing across from a blank wall looking at Hermione as if she was nuts. She was walking the whole corridor and then turning back and going through it again.

"Hermione love, there's nothing here. I know a place where we can practice alone and won't be disturbed," he said sheepishly.

James was silenced rather quickly when a door appeared out of nowhere and Hermione stopped next to him, giggling.

"Hermione?" James questioned suspiciously.

"I'm doing some things for Dumbledore. He showed this to me while I was still in the Hospital Wing." She said while opening the door.

"You know you still haven't told us why you were in the Hospital Wing for so long," James pried before the girl entered the room.

"And you didn't tell me why Remus was there. I'm not going to pry and I expect the same courtesy from the rest of you." Hermione snapped. She immediately regretted it when she saw the upbeat boy deflate visibly.

"Sorry. It's just, it seems like there's more to you than meets the eye. But you're right, I won't pry anymore," James trailed off sadly. Hermione felt bad for having been so rude to the boy. She herself also wanted them to come clean with her. The problem was, she just couldn't tell them a lot, as she might lose their confidence in her.

"I'm sorry, James, I shouldn't have snapped. You're right but it's best for everyone if you don't ask questions." She sighed, placing her hand on his shoulder and giving him a thin smile.

James smiled, albeit weakly, and nodded and they walked into the Room of Requirement. It was done up like a Saharan Desert, and it was big enough that it was difficult to see the walls across the room.

"Hermione, what...?" James looked around the grassland confused.

"I'm in the process of becoming an animagus. I was so close back home when everything… happened." She said, darkly. "I did all the first steps and found out I would be a lioness. I guess this proves that hasn't changed, which comforts me." She looked around the room before turning back to the still confused and a bit scared boy. "All I have left to do is the transformation but I haven't worked on it for quite some time so I wanted someone here to go through it with me."

James' jaw dropped and she shook his head. He looked like he was brimming with questions but he dropped them and soon they got to work. She shed her sweatshirt, glad she put a glamour over her arm and they started in on the spell.

They worked incessantly. James showed her exactly what and how to do it, but three hours later and a lot of sweat, Hermione was frustrated and ready to give up, and sat on the ground.

"Come on Hermione, we're so close, I can tell! Don't give up now, once more! Really become the lioness. You can do this!" James encouraged. Even though he had been supportive since the beginning, she still felt reinvigorated by his strength and belief on her. Hermione nodded and stood up once more.

She closed her eyes and envisioned herself as a lioness. She had to become the lioness. She could do this.

"Animagus Transformato."

Instead of the nothingness she was expecting, suddenly she was on all fours, her hearing and sight enhanced tenfold. She suddenly felt hyper aware and she wanted to run. Hermione was aware of James whooping in the background as she ran around the Room of Requirement for twenty minutes.

When she was sufficiently tired, she happily came to a stop in front of James listening to his instructions.

"Ok, listen, Hermione, all you have to do now is think of you as a human and you should change right back."

Hermione did as she was told and in a second she was back on two legs standing in front of James. He cheered a little bit more, laughing. His happiness was so contagious that Hermione couldn't control herself. She hugged him in excitement.

"That was brilliant, Hermione! I can't believe your form is a lioness, you really do belong in Gryffindor." He beamed. Although Hermione couldn't see it, she could feel him smiling.

"Thank you so much for your help, James! I might not have done it without you." Hermione said as they stepped back and settled on the grass. They spent some time happily starring to their front. James was still pretty much bouncing where he was sat, which warmed Hermione inside, very much like Harry made her feel. Even though she had officially met James only a few weeks ago, she already saw him as family. She hoped he felt the same.

"Can I ask you a question James?" She tried, carefully.

"I thought we said no questions," James replied jokingly nudging her with his shoulder. She chuckled but didn't lose her courage.

"How come Lily and the girls think you four are giant pranksters, incapable of being genuinely nice to people? They were surprised when I told them that you defended Lily and I thought that it happened quite a lot. Why don't you act with them the way you act around me?" The boy frowned and Hermione deflated a bit. It was impressive how James, and Sirius, for that matter, influenced others around them with their antics.

"Well, I don't really know." He said, thoughtfully and staring at the ground. "We've talked about it, around you we do act different. We're not going to ask but we can tell that you've been through a lot and we feel the need to protect you. You are like a sister to all of us." He smiled at her, and she smiled back. "Around Lily and Marlene and Alice and Hestia, we act the way they think we normally do. We grew up a lot but, it's just hard to break the cycle I guess. It's easier not to let anyone in."

"I know it's easier and at the time it seems less painful, but in the end, being alone is the most painful thing that there is." She said. "You should try to act like yourself around them. I know you fancy Lily and I think secretly she fancies you too. Show her that you're worth a chance."

"Maybe you're right Hermione," they were interrupted by James' stomach growling and he smiled sheepishly while Hermione laughed.

"Just like Harry," she mumbled too low for him to hear. "Come on James, let's go eat lunch. Hopefully the rest of you are awake so we can get to training."

They walked out of the Room laughing and joking and stayed that way as they walked into the Great Hall. Hermione waved good morning to the girls and noticed that Alice was back and sat down in between Hestia and Remus. She saw Peter sat near them and almost couldn't control the roar of anger building its way through her. Maybe she was already getting treats of a lioness.

"So Peter are you joining us today?" Hermione asked quietly. However, Hestia heard her.

"Where?" Hestia asked but Hermione ignored her.

"Thanks for the offer, Hermione, but I'm just going to focus on school work for now. I think after Christmas break I'll join you." he said, meekly.

"Alright, Peter," Hermione answered in the nicest voice she could manage, which wasn't exactly nice at all. After spending such a good time with James, she couldn't control her hatred towards the cause his would-have-been demise. She controlled herself fast, though, when she remembered she didn't know if he had already changed sides. She smiled at him and got a shaky smile back.

"What are you doing?" Hestia asked again. This time she got an answer.

"Hermione's training us," Sirius answered happily. "Ouch!" he cried out when Hermione kicked him under the table. "I thought you meant like don't tell the teachers or the Slytherins not other Gryffindors," he defended himself sheepishly.

Hermione huffed but nodded allowing him to tell them more.

"Well, yesterday, some Slytherins said something rude about Hermione, so we went to defend her, and then a fight broke out and she completely kicked ass and now she's training us so that when the war comes around we can actually defend ourselves and not be sitting ducks," he explained while Hermione palmed her face, making James and Remus chuckle.

"I want in," it was Lily that spoke first. "They called you the M word right? Well, that's what I am too so you know better than anyone I need to know how to defend myself."

"Fine, Lily, you can join us," Hermione relented.

"I want in too."

"Me too."

"Count me in," all three girls replied. Hermione groaned.

"Fine, fine, yes, but no more people! Finish your lunch and follow me. We're starting now."

* * *

**A/N: I know Peter isn't in that much but I have a hard time writing him as not a traitor because that's how he's in the book. So I'm trying to do the characters justice. Let me know what you think!**


	6. Chapter 5

**A/N: Here you go with chapter 5! A very warm thank you to all my reader, active or not active, I thank you all for taking time to read my story. A huge thank you as always to my wonderful beta MSupernatural.**

**As always, I own nothing, everything you recognize belongs to JK Rowling or Warner Brothers studios, not me unfortunately.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

A month later Hermione was safely in a routine. She would go to her classes and only answer when directly asked a question. She would then eat and go to a meeting with Dumbledore, where she would discuss her progress with what information she could divulge. Then everyone minus Peter met in the Room of Requirement to practice dueling. In her spare time Hermione would work on her real mission, and that sometimes overlapped with school.

Outside of school, she had acquired the Diadem and destroyed the vanishing cabinet. Both were infinitely easier as she knew exactly where to look and what she was looking for. It took her no more than half an hour to do both things. Over Christmas break she had plans to retrieve the Ring and the Stone. The Diary and The Cup she would need to consult Dumbledore on. She also had a basilisk to slay. As far as the locket was concerned, she was making slow headway with Regulus.

Two years below her and frightfully confused, Regulus sought solace in the Library, conveniently the same place where Hermione was often researching spells. In a month, she had talked to him exactly four times and though they weren't exactly positive, he wasn't calling her a Mudblood, so Hermione considered that good news.

They mostly talked when they were sitting near each other and were reading on the same topic. On one rainy Saturday, Hermione really began to make headway, or rather, he finally showed some kind of improvement towards her.

"Hermione, can I ask you something?" Hermione looked up from her Defense book to look over at Regulus. She assumed it was because he had a Defense question, that was usually their interaction.

"Sure, Regulus, what is it?" Hermione said, putting the book down when she noticed how serious he looked. He looked around, paranoid before joining her at her table. This was new.

"What do you think of what's been happening recently? With You-Know-Who, I mean."

Hermione knew this was her chance to plant the seed of doubt in his mind but she knew she couldn't push him or he would withdraw from her.

"Well, I think you have to come to your own conclusions Regulus. Don't let anyone push you into something you don't want to do, good or bad. No one can tell you what's right and no one can tell you what's wrong. You have to decide for yourself what you believe is right. Once you decide that, everything will be alright," Hermione said gently.

"What-what if I already decided but it wasn't what I originally decided and I'm in too deep. What if I can't go back?" Regulus sounded like a scared little boy, which Hermione supposed he was in a sense.

"There are always ways Regulus. Talk to Dumbledore, alone or with me but he can help you, I know he can."

As soon as she was done talking she looked at his face and knew she pushed too far by mentioning Dumbledore.

"No I don't want to talk to him. It was hypothetical. I have to go," Regulus pulled away from her and started to leave the library.

"When you make your decision, either way, you have to live with that for the rest of your life. Find me when you decide," she said to his back and when she finished speaking he left the library. She turned to the window and thought of the progress she'd made since she got there.

Also on the Death Eater front was Bellatrix Black. During their first fight, Hermione had managed to break her nose and now she had a declared a personal, silent war on her. So far it was little things, taunting names and threatening notes, for example. It didn't seem to be escalating so Hermione decided to keep it to herself for now. She had her own vendetta against Bellatrix so if she wanted to fight, she would fight.

Severus Snape was perhaps the most confusing one of the three. Since Hermione joined classes over a month late, every one had partners for potions already. She was then paired up with Snape who had opted not to have a partner, despite protestations from both parties.

The first day was nothing but insults between the two and a very poorly made potion. After that, they put their grade ahead of everything and worked in silence except for instructions. Every so often Snape would throw an insult in and other times he was nothing but nice to her.

She decided that he wasn't past saving but, with the way Regulus handled it when she pushed too hard, she was hesitant to make the first move. She thought being nice to him was her best course of action.

James and Lily were now, though not officially a couple, not yelling at each other every chance they could get. Tomorrow was Saturday and it was a Hogsmeade day and though they were going all together, she had a feeling the two would break off, which made her smile internally.

Hermione was pulled from her thoughts when she heard someone approaching her table.

"There you are, Hermione! You missed dinner and everyone's waiting in the room for you. Practice was supposed to start 30 minutes ago," Lily scolded her.

"Sorry Lily, I was looking up some things and I lost track of time, I guess. I'm coming now," she hurriedly packed her things up and followed Lily out of the library to begin another round of dueling.

* * *

Hermione sat in the common room on Saturday morning with the boys waiting for the other four girls. Frank couldn't manage to get off of work so Alice was joining them this weekend.

The November air was chilly and everyone was bundled up. Hermione had jeans, knee high boots, a sweater, a red jacket, and a scarf on and she had a feeling she might still be cold.

The boys were all ready, Peter joining them this time and they were impatiently waiting on the girls.

"Finally!" Sirius yelled when he saw them starting to descend the stairs. "Hermione has been down here for an hour! Why don't you guys get ready as fast as she does?"

"That's because Hermione doesn't sleep and has been up since the crack of dawn. Like always," Marlene bit back at Sirius.

"You don't sleep?" Sirius asked his tone turning from annoyed to worried.

"Thanks, Marlene," the girl in question smiled sweetly, albeit falsely in response. "I do sleep, I was just excited to go to Hogsmeade since I missed the first one," Hermione lied through her teeth.

Sirius seemed to think she was lying but let it go and soon the group was in carriages heading towards Hogsmeade.

Hermione found that her predictions were right when after they left Zonkos, James and Lily were no where to be found. Hestia seemed to notice as well.

"Hey, where'd James and Lily go?"

"I'm sure they just want some alone time. They'll catch up with us at the Three Broomsticks later," Hermione assured her, looping her arm through Hestia's as they followed the group to Honeydukes.

"All I'm saying is that we're both attractive people and it's a sin for such good looking people to not be together," Hermione turned her head slightly and saw Sirius talking to Marlene. She then saw Marlene roll her eyes and walk over to Alice.

Hermione walked over to Sirius to give the advice she gave to James.

"You know, that reminds me of Lily and James before I got to James. Act how you act around me when you're with Marlene. I told James that he wasn't acting like the person he was and he had to show Lily he was worth a chance. And now look, they're off somewhere together on a date or something of the sort."

"It's different with you though," Sirius sighed. "I mean you are very pretty and nice and smart and sometimes you're scary but you're an honorary Marauder, you're our sister. I don't want to date you."

"Just trust me, Sirius. Marlene will like the real you just like I do," Hermione said sincerely, with a grin. Sirius ruffled her hair and gave her a quick peck on the head.

"Thanks, Herms," he smirked at her and then ran out of the shop. Hermione dropped her purchases on the floor and ran after him.

"Sirius Black how many times do I have to tell you not to call me that! I'll get you for that!" she jumped on his back and they fell to the ground laughing.

The others looked on through the shop window laughing at the two rolling in the snow dumping and throwing snow on each other.

They eventually walked back inside to pay for their things before making their way to the Three Broomsticks. They walked in and saw James and Lily in a large booth in the back and made their way to them. James spotted them first and started to wave.

"Finally! We've been waiting forever for you guys!" James whined.

"James, it hasn't even been five minutes!" Lily countered, chuckling.

"Yeah well, I'm hungry," James shot back. Lily just rolled her eyes and smiled at him causing a slight blush to creep onto his face. Hermione, noticing this had to make a comment on it.

"Aw, is Jamie blushing?" Hermione teased. He glared at her.

"Herms, I told you not to call me Jamie numerous times before."

She rolled her eyes before sitting down next to Lily and Alice came and sat on the other side of her.

The group of friends laughed and joked eating their food and drinking their Butterbeers when an explosion rocked through Hogsmeade.

* * *

Outside of the village of Hogsmeade stood a group of Death Eaters waiting to attack. None were school kids as the Dark Lord didn't want them to get expelled since he needed spies in Hogwarts.

He became increasingly aware of a group of Gryffindors that were becoming powerful and whole heartedly in opposition to him and his cause. Voldemort had decided that it was time to show them that they were on the wrong side. He had told his Death Eaters that there were no rules. They had free reign to terrorize as they pleased.

So now the group of thirty or so stood waiting for the leader of this mission- Lucius Malfoy- to give them the go.

* * *

Malfoy gave them the go ahead, and all hell broke loose.

After the dust settled, Hermione opened her eyes to see Death Eaters flooding the street. She cursed under her breath and turned back to her friends who were looking at her for guidance.

She took two deep breaths and pushed the panic down to give them orders.

"Ok ok, Peter and Alice take the younger students and anyone who wants to come out the back door. Sneak them to Honeydukes in small groups, don't draw attentions to yourselves. There's a secret passageway, Peter knows where it is, take them there." They nodded and stood up to leave.

"Sirius, I need you to be as fast as possible. You hear me? I need you to be fast as you can possibly be, go to Dumbledore and tell him what's happened. Tell him to get those he's recruited so far because this isn't part of the plan as far as I know." Sirius didn't even let Hermione finish before sprinting out of the pub.

"The rest of you can come with me or you can go with Alice and Peter."

When no one moved, and they all looked at Hermione like she had five heads she clapped her hands together to get their attention.

"Hey! This is not a drill. Actual lives are at stake here so you need to focus, now," Hermione barked out the order and suddenly everyone started moving. Hermione started taking her jacket and scarf off and throwing her hair up in a ponytail and thankfully the other girls followed suit.

She raced into the street and it was pure chaos. There were fights happening everywhere and some people were laying on the ground though Hermione couldn't tell if they were injured or not.

Hermione turned and saw a group of younger girls boxed into an alley way by who she could only assume was Greyback. She quickly raced towards them throwing a slicing hex at the man. She hit him in the back, it wasn't deep enough to make him fall but it turned his attention from the girls to Hermione.

She threw nasty cutting hexes and borderline dark internal spells at the vile man while he threw back the same at her. Though she was winning, she was still in a bad shape and that didn't stop when a masked Death Eater came over to help Greyback.

She had done two-to-one before, she could handle this. She was still holding her ground though slowly losing power when a third Death Eater she recognized as Lucius Malfoy came to join the party.

"This is the new one he talks about. Things have been changing since she arrived. Take care of her," Malfoy commanded.

Then it was a three-on-one deal and Hermione was quickly losing. She had gotten a few good shots off at all three men but she was out of practice and she was very clearly not going to win this battle. They were out for blood, and apparently, it was hers.

Just when Hermione was sure she couldn't take anymore, she heard a bark that she knew was Padfoot and then she saw Dumbledore, McGonagall, Flitwick and other members of the Order coming down towards Hogsmeade. She musn't have been the only one to see them because seconds later all the Death Eaters apparated away.

The last thing she saw was Dumbledore's eyes before she blacked out.


	7. Chapter 6

**A/N: Sorry this one is a little late, I've been binging on Arrow lately and that has taken a lot of my time. Thank you to all my readers as always and my amazing beta MSupernatural.**

**I still own nothing.**

**Enjoy the next chapter!**

* * *

Hermione opened her eyes a minute later albeit begrudgingly. She would get help for herself once she was sure that everyone else was all right. She had heard Malfoy, this was partially her fault. She had changed something and that had made this attack happen. If she royally screwed up Harry being born, she would never forgive herself.

She winced in pain as she rolled over to push herself off the ground. She felt someone helping her up and saw that Sirius was back in his human form. He looked insanely worried and Hermione smiled assuring him that everything would be ok.

"Hermione, you're bleeding! Sit back down right now, you look like death!" Sirius said sounding quite like Madame Pomfrey.

"Sirius, please," Hermione begged tears building behind her eyes. "I have to know that they're ok, I promise I'll go to Pomfrey as soon as we get back to the castle. But I have to know."

Sirius looked her in the eyes and, after debating internally with himself, decided to let her come with him to look for everyone else. He slipped an arm around her shoulders and steered her towards the main street where Dumbledore was standing with Frank Longbottom, Mad-Eye, the Prewett twins, Peter and Alice.

"Hermione, dear, I'm glad you're alright. I saw you fall and I trusted Sirius to take care of you, though you seem set in not going anywhere until you are assured everything is ok," Dumbledore said with a twinkle in his eye and Hermione nodded back at him.

"Very well. This is Frank Longbottom, Alastor Moody and Fabian and Gideon Prewett. They are instrumental to our cause. Gentlemen, this is Hermione who is also very helpful and very dear to me."

Hermione nodded a greeting to the men and turned to Peter and Alice.

"Did everything go ok? No one was hurt, right?" Alice hugged Hermione lightly trying to calm her down before answering her.

"It went off perfectly. No one was hurt, everyone is safe in the castle right now, thanks to you," Alice turned to the men, "Hermione is the one that came up with a plan. I'm sure we wouldn't have been nearly as successful without her."

Hermione blushed under the praise before turning to Dumbledore, "I'll be back up at the castle soon, I just need to make sure my- everyone else is ok," Dumbledore nodded and Sirius and Hermione departed to look for James, Lily, Hestia, Remus and Marlene.

"Hermione! Oh thank God, I was so worried!" They turned to the voice and saw Remus sitting on a bench while Flitwick was looking at his arm.

"Remus!" the two rushed over to their friend. "What happened?" Hermione questioned.

"Oh, it's nothing, just got a gash on my arm and my side. I'm fine." the boy did look alright, as far as they could tell. However, he eyed Hermione worriedly. "What about you Hermione?"

"I'm fine-"

"She's not fine, she's about to drop but she's being stubborn and won't go up to the castle until we find everyone." Sirius interrupted impatiently, his voice an octave higher. He really was worried for his friend. "Have you seen anyone else?"

"Lily and James were by Zonkos but I haven't seen them since the fight ended. Hestia is a little banged up but she's fine. She's over there with Marlene," Remus pointed over to the two girls and after Hermione give Remus a peck on the cheek, the two walked over to the girls.

"Hestia, Marlene, are you ok?" Hermione asked worriedly. Hestia turned around and Hermione saw she had a split lip and black eye but otherwise she looked fine. Marlene however didn't look much too great. She was shaking and she had a large cut on her head and her leg.

"I'm fine, but Marlene… they hit her with the Cruciatus. I don't know how long it was for but she hasn't said anything," Hestia answered sadly.

"Shit," Hermione pushed herself away from Sirius and ignoring her own pain knelt down next to Marlene. "Marlene, sweetie, it's Hermione. It's ok love, they're gone. No one else is going to hurt you alright?"

When Marlene didn't say anything Hermione began to get worried. She knew fairly well the effects of the Cruciatus Curse, and seeing Marlene so shaken reminded her of all she had gone through.

"Marlene, I need you to look at me please," Hermione said softly, letting out a deep breath when she did as asked and conjured a stretcher. "Good, that's good. Now I need you to get on this stretcher and go with Hestia to Madame Pomfrey ok?" she nodded again. "Tell her what happened, she'll make it better."

Hermione turned to Hestia and said under her breath so that Marlene couldn't hear her. "Don't leave her alone, not even for a second. Take Remus with you so that one of you is with her at all times. I'll be up soon but just keep talking to her," Hestia nodded and the two departed, Marlene floating on the stretcher behind Hestia.

Hermione gave a grave look to Sirius and he shook his head sadly, no one should have to go through that.

"Sirius! Hermione!" they both turned their heads to see Lily frantically calling their name. They raced over to where she was knelt over James' unconscious body.

"Lily what happened to him?" Hermione asked while Sirius looked on in dead silence.

"He was hit with more than one stunner I think two maybe three but Ennervate isn't working on him! Hermione I don't know what to do he jumped in front of me-" Lily started breathing quickly and rapidly and Hermione knew she was going to have a panic attack.

"Lily breathe, he's going to be fine. Sirius take Lily up to the castle and get her some tea and have her take a shower, make sure she doesn't have any other injuries because she's in shock."

No one moved so Hermione yelled bot of their names again and they both followed her order.

"Oh James, you had to jump in front of Lily didn't you? Now I know where Harry gets it from."

Hermione tried her own Ennervate thinking it would be stronger than Lily's and might wake James up to no luck.

Trying not to panic but becoming slightly frantic Hermione conjured a stretcher and brought him over to Madame Pomfrey.

"He was hit with more than one stunner, no one is sure how many. He's stable but I can't wake him up," Hermione explained frantically to Pomfrey.

Madame Pomfrey started waving her hand over James and smiled slightly to herself. "He will be fine. He should wake up in a few hours. I'll have Professor McGonagall bring him up to the Hospital Wing but I need to check you out Hermione, you're bleeding."

Hermione pushed the concerned hands off of her and shook her head.

"I have to talk to Dumbledore, it's vital. I promise when I'm done talking to him I'll go straight to the Hospital Wing."

Pomfrey grunted but didn't object so Hermione made her way up to the castle where she saw Dumbledore head earlier.

When she finally got into his office she was in a great deal of pain but she needed to talk out loud to someone. She gave the gargoyle the password and headed up to his office. The door was opened and Hermione knew he was expecting her.

"You know, Miss Granger, you really should have let Madame Pomfrey check you out first," he said once Hermione sat herself across from him. She shrugged in response.

"I know my body and I've been hurt worse than this. It's mostly superficial wounds, I won't even have to spend the night in the Hospital Wing."

"Why don't we talk about what is really bothering you, Hermione?" he said. His intelligent eyes shone in a way that told Hermione how aware of things he was. She had never been close to the Headmaster. That is, as close as Harry, at least. However, she could still recognize his attitude pretty well.

"This was my fault." She said softly, tears threatening to fall again.

"Now, you don't know that dear," Dumbledore tried to reassure her but Hermione knew he didn't believe what he was saying.

"You and I both know that it's true. Malfoy said that I'm the one he talks about and that things have been changing since I arrived," Dumbledore was silent in response and in frustration Hermione stood up and started to pace.

"You know he's right. I got too involved. This should have been simple. Keep my head down, kill the Horcruxes, kill Voldemort and die in the process so real me doesn't disappear into the oblivion. Now we're friends and they like me and I'm changing things that aren't supposed to be changed. This is so the future isn't bleak, my feelings don't come into this-" Hermione rambled, hands flying, pacing back and forth.

"Hermione my dear, take a breath. First things first, you knew this wouldn't be simple. There is much more to this than killing Voldemort. You are starting the resistance, you are doing what is necessary. You are not too involved, you are doing the best you can."

"Well, it's not good enough!" She nearly shouted in desperation. "This was never supposed to happen! Bad things happen to those who meddle with time! Why did I think that this was possible? I have to pull back and focus on the mission. I went to Hogsmeade and I should have been researching. I have people to sway and Horcruxes to find and destroy." She wasn't looking at her headmaster anymore, but pacing around the room.

"You're only human, Hermione," Dumbledore comforted softly.

Hermione sighed not convinced but decided to change the topic, "I don't know what to do about Peter. He seemed genuinely shocked today but he keeps disappearing and I can't find him on the map which makes me think he's with Death Eaters but I don't want to push him into it if he can be saved."

"I agree. Try and investigate without pushing. It may only take one more instance for him to switch sides."

Hermione nodded and got up to leave and go to the Infirmary. As she was walking through the door Dumbledore called out one last time.

"Hermione dear, nothing is set in stone. You have not failed."

Hermione walked into pure chaos when she reached the Hospital Wing. Though only ten or so beds were occupied there were Ministry officials, Auror's, professors and family members running around the wing frantically.

Deciding that dealing with people was the last thing she wanted to do, Hermione went to a bed in the far corner of the room even though her normal bed was kept open for her. She pulled the drawings closed and collapsed onto the bed.

Not a minute later Hermione heard a pop near her head and opened her eyes to see Plip standing over her looking worried.

"Is Missus Hermiones ok?"

Hermione sat up on the bed to placate Plip, "Yeah, I'm ok, Plip, just a little banged up. Can you get me some antibiotics and a pain potion please?" Plip looked resistant so Hermione tried to reassure her. "Please Plip? I don't want to bother Madame Pomfrey, she's helping other people."

Plip nodded her head and Hermione beamed.

"Don't tell anyone you saw me either please, I don't want a fuss," Plip nodded and exited the curtained area to get the supplies for Hermione.

Plip returned five minutes later with the requested supplies. Plip helped her clean the cuts on her arms and side and the slight burn on her leg. Satisfied that she was healed as well as possible, Hermione thanked Plip and slipped out of the Hospital Wing undetected.

Instead of heading to the Gryffindor Tower, which admittedly would be mostly empty of the people she didn't want to see, Hermione headed to the Room of Requirement to get some peace and quiet. She barely registered walking into the Room or what she even asked the Room for but when she opened the doors she knew it was just what she needed.

It looked exactly like the Burrow's living room. The warm fireplace and homey couches and chairs. Even the smell was exactly right. Hermione could almost hear Harry and Ron playing chess and Ginny babbling away to Luna. A tear spilt out of her eye as she inhaled deeply letting the room encompass her. She slowly walked over to the couch and sank into it letting the worn out cushions comfort her. She needed this, her family to help her through this. But that couldn't happen so this would have to do.

She let the environment soothe her and clear her head. And she knew what she had to do. She knew she was right. This was no time for friends or memories. She helped James and Lily but that was so Harry would be born. She was right when she was talking to Dumbledore- she's been off track. She's causing more harm than good.

That would change now. She would spend most of her time alone or with Dumbledore. She needed to focus more on getting the Horcruxes taken care of, that she knew of. She needed to stop trying to be friends with people that she was leaving in a few years anyways.

They'll probably hate her in her lifetime for lying to them and not doing more or lying so she might as well make it less painful.

Clearing her head from her thoughts Hermione requested pajamas and changed into the soft wool clothes before curling up on the couch with a Weasley quilt pulled over her like a cocoon. She felt safe and for the first time, she actually slept for more than 3 hours.

When Hermione awoke, she felt more rested than she remembered being in a long time, in both of her lifetimes. Hermione checked her watch and saw that it was around 3 o clock on the next day. She cursed herself for sleeping for so long but couldn't begrudge herself the fact that she had never felt better rested, she could get some quality work done today.

Hermione quickly showered and ate the food on the table that Plip must have gotten her before re-wrapping all of her wounds. Thanks to the medicine, most of them were now only shallow so she just had to put more medicine on before wrapping them and heading to Dumbledore's office.

She didn't even bother knocking and thankfully he was alone. He had a sad look in his eyes as if he knew what Hermione had decided. He gestured to the seat and Hermione pulled out her notebook.

"Let's get started."


	8. Chapter 7

**A/N: Sorry this one took longer than normal, my Harry Potter muse has been replaced with a gusto by Arrow. But no worries, I have no plans to abandon this story! It may just be a few days in between updates now. Thanks for all my readers, loyal and new and everyone that has been reviewing, they fuel my HP muse. As always my beta MSupernatural deserves a huge thank you for being just excited as I am about this story.**

**Hope you all enjoy!**

* * *

Apart from the day after, it had been a week since the incident and Hermione hadn't had any contact with the girls or the Marauders, except for them looking across classrooms to her longingly.

* * *

_Hermione was leaving the Room of Requirement and heading to the Great Hall to get some dinner quickly. She wanted to go and get back into her sanctuary as soon as possible, and she only decided to go because the food that Plip had gotten her had not satisfied her enough after her talk with Dumbledore. She still had classes the day after, but she wanted to avoid people for as long as possible. Hermione figured that, since it was a Sunday and the day after the attack, not many people would be in the Great Hall at 8 for dinner. She was wrong._

_When Hermione walked into the Great Hall, she couldn't help but feel just like Harry must have felt whenever a big scandal around him erupted. Sure, Hermione had been the butt end of rumors a couple of times, especially in her fourth year, and she was always with Harry when all eyes turned on him, but she had never experienced everyone's undivided attention on her._

_It seemed like she was late to a meeting that she had called. She was incredibly late to dinner but she had been talking to Dumbledore and she had hoped that by the time she headed down, no one would be there. Now, it was obvious that her friends had waited for her. All four houses had stopped when she walked in and immediately began talking, no doubt about how she battled three people and maybe about how the whole thing was her fault. The only people that didn't resume talking were the Marauders and the girls. There were, however, two people missing, James and Marlene._

_Sirius stared at her, looking as if he'd gotten no sleep and Hermione was sure that he hadn't. The others looked hopeful as if Hermione hadn't purposely been ignoring them for almost 24 hours. Sirius didn't however; he had a sad and disappointed look in his eyes as if he knew her decision already. Hermione ignored them and sat at the end of the table, closest to the exit. She put small amounts of food on her plate before putting the rest in her bag. She looked up at the end of her meal and her eyes met Dumbledore's, he had just enough time to look disappointed and shake his head before Hermione lowered her eyes, leaving the Great Hall._

_Hermione hadn't checked to see whether or not her old friends were in the Great Hall, so, when she rounded the corner, she was surprised when two people grabbed each of her arms and dragged her into a classroom. She would have freaked out if she didn't recognize Sirius' and Remus' scents._

_Someone lit a lamp and Hermione was leaning on a desk with Lily, Hestia, Alice, Sirius and Remus in front of her. Their expressions ranged from hurt, to angry, to disappointed. Hermione dropped her eyes avoiding their accusing stares and waited for them to start berating her._

_"Well?" It was Lily who started the conversation, she snapped at Hermione in a voice Hermione had never heard on the sweet Head Girl._

_Hermione looked up at them again, knowing what they wanted but deciding to play dumb._

_"Well what?"_

_"You know damn well what she's talking about Hermione! Why are you avoiding us? You didn't come see anyone in the hospital, James and Marlene were both asking for you. We were worried at first, you just disappeared, but it seems like you were fine and not worried about us," Sirius' cold voice cut at her and Hermione visibly flinched._

_"Are James and Marlene ok?" Hermione asked in a timid voice, staring at the floor._

_"Don't pretend like you care," Sirius snapped again._

_"Sirius," Remus sighed. "They're ok. James is up and besides his bruised ego he'll be fine, he's being released tomorrow morning so he won't miss any classes. Marlene will be in there for a few more days, she's mostly sore but she has some spasms every now and then."_

_"Tell Madame Pomfrey to give her Sunplow, she'll know what it is. It helps with the spasms," Hermione instructed in a dead voice. She pushed herself off of the desk and went to leave but Sirius stopped her._

_"No. You're not leaving until you tell us what's wrong with you."_

_"It's just better this way."_

_"Better for you?" Hestia asked. Hermione looked away from them. "Better for us?" They took Hermione's silence as a yes._

_"Hermione, what happened was not your fault! We're not better off without you; we probably would have died without you! Don't do this to yourself, and to us! You're our family!" Lily pleaded._

_"No! This is my fault, if I hadn't come here, this never would have happened. You wouldn't have died; you wouldn't even have been attacked! It's better this way, I need it to be this way, and you have to accept that."_

_"Hermione, please," this time it was Alice pleading._

_"Goodbye," Hermione said sadly as she left the room._

* * *

The past week had been tough and thankfully it was Friday and Hermione just had to get through Potions and DADA before she could hole up in the Room of Requirement for the weekend. She had decided that, during the week, she would spend all her time in the library and only spend the night in the girls dorm and on the weekend she would live in the Room of Requirement working for Dumbledore and working out her own plans.

Snape had caught onto the fact that she was no longer friends with the Gryffindors and this seemed to be the push he needed to actually talk to her. While they were waiting for their potion to simmer, he started a conversation.

"So you're really not friends with the Gryffindorks anymore?"

"No, but that doesn't mean you should call them names."

"Why?"

"Because it's mean, Severus."

"I meant why aren't you friends with them anymore."

"Oh. Sometimes it's better for someone to be alone. I'm sure you understand that," Hermione said thoughtfully.

"Yeah…I do actually," Snape said looking at her in a different way.

"You know, I spend almost all my free time during the week in the library if you ever want someone to be alone with."

Snape didn't answer but Hermione had an idea that he was seriously considering. He liked to spend his time alone, but maybe... maybe he could still enjoy his loneliness without actually being alone.

After DADA, which was underwhelming as always, Hermione headed to her normal table tucked in the back of the library. Regulus wasn't there but Hermione hadn't seen him in a while.

She was already immersed in her reading when someone came and approached her table. Thinking it was the Marauders fed up with her ignoring them, Hermione steeled herself for a fight. However, when she looked up, it was Severus standing in front of her with a pile of books in his arm.

"Mind if I sit here?" he asked pointing sheepishly to the spot across from Hermione.

"Go ahead."

They sat in companionable silence except for the odd homework question here or there. Hermione knew the progress she was making with Snape was slow but she could feel a real friendship budding there.

A few tables back, hidden from the sight of Hermione, sat Remus, Sirius, James and Peter. They were silently watching Hermione and Snape sit quietly doing their homework. The pair wasn't speaking, but they weren't throwing insults and fighting either. They acted civil during Potions but the Marauders and the girls all thought that it was because they wanted a good grade, they never thought it was anything more than show.

The four boys watched as Snivellus was nothing but nice, at least for a guy like him, to Hermione and they hated it. After another half hour of spying they quietly slipped past them and left the library.

"I can't believe Hermione is friends with Snivellus but she won't be friends with us anymore. What the hell is wrong with the world?" Sirius complained.

"I don't know. We've always known there was something more going on with her we just never knew what," said Remus.

"Maybe we should try talking to her again," James suggested.

"I think we should give her a little more space. We're leaving for winter holiday in a week so we'll talk to her when we get back," Remus decided. He was met with no opposition so they dropped the topic and headed to the Great Hall for dinner.

Back in the library, after finishing up the last of her essays, Hermione put her things into her bag and started putting the books back where they belonged. She stood up as she bid Severus goodbye.

"Goodnight Severus, I'll see you Monday."

"Yeah, bye."

Hermione headed out of the library and to Dumbledore's office. They had one week until the students left and as soon as they did Hermione and Dumbledore had things they needed to do. This week was all prep for the tasks they had ahead of them.

She headed up the statue and entered the office without knocking, taking her place at the seat in front of his desk.

"So my dear, how was your week?" Hermione rolled her eyes at Dumbledore trying to have small talk with Hermione. He did it every week and every week Hermione ignored it.

"You know that it was the same as always, dull and boring and I still feel like I'm not doing enough. Now, can we get to the planning?"

Dumbledore shook his head smiling slightly before he pulled out his notes.

"How is it going with Regulus and Severus?"

"I've made no headway whatsoever with Regulus, I think I pushed him too far. I think that over Christmas he will be initiated and then I think he will come to me again. He is crucial, he can get into the vault before Bellatrix marries Rodolphus and the cup is put there, I believe that this will happen this summer. And of course he will be given the locket. Things are going much better with Severus. He trusts me more now that I am not friends with the Gryffindors, I believe he may feel a kinship towards me. Hopefully that will get him to come to me, though I believe he may already have the mark."

"Well keep working on Regulus, he is most important, as is Severus. Now are you sure that you want to do both the Chamber and the Gaunt house in such a short period of time? It seems like it may be much."

"Yes Professor, I'm sure. The sooner we get all this sorted, the sooner we can kill him and this will all be over."

* * *

It was the night before break and Hermione had been ordered by Dumbledore to spend it in the girls dormitory. She didn't like him telling her what to do but he was giving her a lot of leeway so she decided to indulge.

She sat on her bed, the drawings half closed, looking at a picture of Harry, Ron and her that the Room of Requirement had conjured up for her. At first when she was in the dorm, the girls would try to talk to her and get her to change her mind, but she would ignore them so eventually they stopped. The silence sometimes was chilling but Hermione preferred it that way. However, it seemed like fate was not on her side that night and in the spirit of the holiday's the girls were going to try again.

"What're you looking at?" Hestia asked, coming over to sit on the edge of Hermione's bed. Hermione didn't answer and instead put the picture in her red notebook and spelled it shut. "Ok then, nevermind. You know if you would actually talk to people, you wouldn't need a notebook to put all your thoughts so your head doesn't explode," she said before getting up and walking back to her bed.

Figuring that was the end of it, Hermione went to the bathroom to get herself ready for bed and when she came back the drawings on her bed were fully opened and so were all the others and they were all looking at her.

"Hermione why won't you at least talk to us, please. You have to be lonely and we miss you," Lily pleaded. Still, Hermione stayed silent much to all the girl's dismay. It was then that Alice noticed her trunk was open and half filled, not packed.

"Hermione aren't you going to pack? We leave tomorrow for holiday," Alice asked causing the three other girls to look at her expectedly. Hermione decided they would realize tomorrow that she wasn't going anywhere so she might as well tell them.

"No, I'm staying here."

They girls seemed so shocked that she even answered that they didn't say anything for a few moments.

"Oh Hermione you shouldn't be spending this time alone. You should be with family or friends. If we had known, we all would have invited you back to our houses. It's not to late to pack, come on!" Lily started running around throwing stuff in her trunk as Hermione just sat not moving. That is, until Lily picked up her red notebook. The notebook registered that it wasn't Hermione touching it and it gave Lily a small shock, just enough so she would drop the book.

"Ow! Hermione! What the heck? Your book just shocked me!"

"Well, that means my spell works then," was all Hermione said by way of apologizing. "I'm not going anywhere Lily, you can stop packing my trunk. Dumbledore knows I'm staying here, and I want to stay here. Besides, I heard Hogwarts on Christmas is beautiful," Hermione added on hoping that would placate them.

After a few more minutes of grumbling and arguing the girls finally left Hermione alone and went to their own beds.

* * *

The next morning Hermione went down to Dumbledore's office just after everyone had left. She had leggings, sneakers, and a tight sweatshirt on so she could be as mobile as possible. Her curly hair was braided and pushed out of her face so it wouldn't get in the way and she held her wand tightly in her hand.

Dumbledore looked as Hermione did, ready but slightly nervous. She didn't think she had ever seen her professor look nervous before.

"Do you have the hat?" Hermione asked. Dumbledore held out the hat and Hermione grabbed it in her left hand. Dumbledore then called Fawkes over and the bird flew over and perched himself on Dumbledore's shoulder.

Ten minutes later, they were standing in front of the sink and Hermione took a deep breath before whispering the sound she heard Ron hiss, "Open."


	9. Chapter 8

**A/N: Thank you to my beta Gaby who did great work with this chapter! And thank you to everyone for the great response last chapter! _There's a poll on my page that would be really helpful for me if you guys could take. I'm on chapter 16 of this story and I've got 5/6 left before the sequel but I also have one-shots that take place between this story and the sequel. So pick your preference and I'll do the one that gets the most votes!_**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing that you recognize and I'm making no money off of this (sadly)**

* * *

Hermione took a deep breath as the secret entrance opened. She ignored Myrtle who was flying around them, making comments and being all around annoying. She may not have remembered Harry whispering parseltongue in his sleep but she definitely remembered Ron whispering it right before she destroyed the Horcrux._ That was something she'd never forget_, she thought, shuddering.

Dumbledore jumped down the slide first and Hermione closed her eyes and jumped after Dumbledore gave her the all clear.

The ground crunched underneath her when she landed, the bones cracking under the pressure of her feet. Thankfully, the smell was much more bearable since there wasn't a fifty foot long giant snake decaying 100 feet away from her like the last time. The pungent smell had been almost unbearable the last time. She was quite sure those clothes were never going to be the same.

Hermione turned on her flashlight so that her wand was free for fighting the snake. She had handed the hat to Dumbledore so that she could lead the way with the flashlight, and so they went through the tunnel, without speaking to each other, lost in their thoughts regarding what they were about to do. They came to the chamber door and Hermione forced the hiss again and the door opened.

They stepped into the chamber side by side silently waiting for something to happen. They stood there quietly for a few moments before Hermione picked up a stray rock and threw it towards the statue at the end of the chamber. It bounced off the statue and onto the ground making a clattering noise. She could feel herself and Dumbledore holding their breath.

For a moment, everything was still, but then there was a loud noise and Hermione was looking at a live basilisk for the second time in her life. And it was then that Hermione remembered that the crow of a rooster killed basilisks and she cursed herself to eternity for forgetting something so crucial, but they had been planning for a lot and it must have slipped her mind.

Both Hermione and Dumbledore lifted their wands and Fawkes hovered slightly behind with the Sorting Hat in his beak. Hermione had a feeling she was going to need the sword but she had no idea if it was going to come to her or if Dumbledore was going to need it.

The basilisk came closer and Hermione and Dumbledore averted their eyes, so as to not get killed by the penetrating stare. They both shot hexes and curses at the basilisk but it somehow managed to dodge most of them. Suddenly, the basilisk swung its giant head towards Dumbledore who dodged it but tripped in the process. The basilisk moved closer to Dumbledore so Hermione whistled loudly so the professor could get his bearings. Her heart thundered inside her chest as she moved towards one of the sides of the chamber.

She moved quickly, trying not to give into the impulse of looking at the giant snake. When she finally made it to the left side of the chamber, she closed her eyes and turned. Hermione was trapped between the basilisk and the wall when suddenly Fawkes dropped the Sorting Hat at Hermione's feet. Hermione picked it up thinking _this is it_ before plunging her hand into the hat and praying she pulled something out.

The gods seemed to be in her favor for that second when Hermione's hand wrapped around the handle of what could only be the Gryffindor Sword. She pulled it from the hat and, dropping the hat to the ground she turned the sword toward the giant snake. She remembered that Harry had gotten stabbed because he had stabbed it through the mouth so that was not was she was going to do.

Instead she waited until Dumbledore had gotten himself up, when he saw Hermione he cast a fire spell to distract the snake. The basilisk saw the flame and turned its head exposing its underside. Not wasting any time Hermione thrust the blade into the softer stomach of the beast.

The basilisk gave a horrific cry and Hermione pulled the blade out before quickly inserting it a little bit higher just to be sure that she killed it.

Another cry erupted from the basilisk and it thrashed its head around for a bit before falling to the ground.

Dumbledore did a spell to make sure it was truly dead and, when they saw that it was, they both let out a sigh of relief. Dumbledore let out a small giggle and Hermione smiled a bit, rolling her eyes at the nutty professor.

"So now this blade is impregnated with basilisk venom which means it can kill people and more importantly Horcruxes. But we should probably take some fangs just in case," Hermione finally spoke after a minute of silence. Dumbledore nodded and Hermione walked towards the now dead basilisk.

Carefully, she magically pulled out 10 fangs and stuck them in a small bag which she closed and enchanted before sticking it in the beaded bag inside her sock.

"What did you do with the remainders in your time?" Dumbledore asked, eyeing the gigantic snake.

"Uh... nothing." Hermione bit her lower lip. "Which actually worked out for us because we ended up needing the fangs for the Hufflepuff Cup but it smelt absolutely disgusting when we came down to get the fangs. I'll let you decide what you want to do with it."

Hermione was surprised when Dumbledore put a preservation charm on the snake. He sensed her questioning gaze and answered her unasked question.

"We may need it again, also I have some tests that one day, when there isn't a war raging on, I would like to run. That's so the body doesn't decay or stink up the whole chamber."

After controlling her surprise, Hermione smiled at her professor before following him out of the Chamber with the sword swinging from her left hand.

* * *

The Marauders sat in a carriage with Lily, Marlene, Hestia and Alice. Normally, they would have sat in different carriages but since Lily and James had gotten together and since they had fought together, the groups of friends had gotten closer. Although everyone was talking, they still felt the absence of Hermione.

"I hate this!" Lily randomly yelled in the middle of the game of exploding snap. James looked at her slightly startled and a little confused.

"Ok…we can do something else Lily, we don't have to play this," James tried to placate her but she waved him off.

"No, no, it's not that! It's Hermione!" She angrily tossed her hair to the other side. "We tried to talk to her again last night, like, really tried for the first time in a while, and she completely blew us off!" She was getting redder as she couldn't control her rage. The other occupants of the carriage only looked at her, sympathetic to her feeling. "Oh, let us not forget that, when I grabbed that red journal she's always carrying around and writing in, it shocked me! It literally shocked me!"

"Hermione doesn't want to be friends with us anymore, Lily." James said, in a thin voice, eyeing his shoes. "I know it's hard but we have to accept it," His voice was full of sadness and sorrow.

"She's only doing it because she thinks she's protecting us!" Lily ranted, causing Sirius to scoff.

"If she was trying to protect us, she would have actually made sure James and Marlene were ok when they were in the hospital. And she wouldn't be friends with Snivellus either."

"There's got to be a reason though!" Lily argued back. Sirius opened his mouth, frowning, but James decided this shouldn't go on.

"We know it's hard, Lil, we miss her too but you can't force her to talk to you. I think we all tried and Hermione is too stubborn for us. And Remus has been saying for a while she's keeping a secret from us," James cut off whatever argument Sirius was going to give.

"Really, Remus?" Lily asked, turning her gaze to the sandy haired boy.

"Yeah." Remus said, sheepishly. "I mean, I have no idea what it is, but I can just tell that she's hiding something from us. I think there's more to her story than what she told us."

"I can't believe she's staying at the castle for the holidays," Hestia said. The boys looked at her shocked.

"Really?" Remus asked lightly.

"We just found out last night. We tried to get her to come with one of us but she wouldn't do it. She said she heard Hogwarts was beautiful during Christmas as if that was a reason she should stay," Hestia explained.

"We should ask Dumbledore if we can come back early. She can't very well ignore us if we're the only ones in the castle," Lily smiled, already forming a plan in her head.

"Lily, I don't think that's a good idea. Sirius is right, she seems to not really care anymore." James said, biting his lower lip. "We should just leave her be. If she wants to be friends with us, she can come find us and apologize for ignoring us for a month."

"Please, Jamie! I really think that something more is going on! She always looks so sad and I know you guys miss her too. I don't think she has any family, so we're all she has. If this doesn't work then I promise I'll never bring it up again," Lily pleaded, giving James puppy eyes that she knew would make him say yes.

James looked at Peter who just shrugged, Remus who nodded and then Sirius who after a minute of staring at James finally relented and gave one short nod.

"Ok fine, I'll write to Dumbledore," James sighed and Lily smiled and jumped on him giving him a huge hug and thanking him profusely.

* * *

Hermione and Dumbledore both sat in separate beds in the Hospital Wing with Madame Pomfrey fretting over them. They only had minor scrapes and bruises, although Dumbledore did have a bump on his head as well. They hadn't planned on going to the infirmary but when they were walking up to Dumbledore's office, they ran into Madame Pomfrey and she had made them come.

Although they were being berated about being reckless again, Hermione couldn't help but smile at the victory. They were one step closer to getting rid of Voldemort.

Christmas day was a strange affair for Hermione. She wasn't really complaining though, as on her previous Christmas, she was worrying about whether or not Harry was going to live and the fact that she had snapped his wand. She had also visited James' and Lily's graves. Hermione shuddered and that thought, fear slowly but steadily climbing up her back. She could feel the guilt grabbing her for giving them a cold shoulder like that, so she shook her head to clear her thoughts. Dwelling on that just now wouldn't do any good.

Hermione was surprised to find a small pile of presents at the foot of her bed. She wasn't surprised to find a small bag of sweets from Dumbledore. She had expected something from him and had gotten him some Lemon Drops. What she didn't expect was the book of Advanced Defense Spells from Remus and Peter, the clothes from the girls, and a large box of candy and a book about Animagus transformation from James and Sirius.

She smiled slightly to herself before shaking her head. Yes, she missed having friends, especially Remus, Sirius and James because they reminded her so much of Harry and Ron, but the path she chose was a lonely one and she wouldn't risk her friends lives because she decided to play with fate.

For the rest of the day, she read her books and put her new clothes away. She then wrote thank you notes to everyone and put them on their beds before joining Dumbledore, the teachers and three other students for the feast. She sat between Dumbledore and McGonagall, talking to the Transfiguration teacher about the class.

She was much closer to the teacher during her younger Hogwarts days and she missed it greatly. She could feel McGonagall trying to get closer with her and as much as Hermione wanted to indulge in that desire, she didn't have time to build relationships here when she was planning on dying anyways.

The next day, they were going to the Gaunt house. Dumbledore didn't want to go so soon but Hermione was getting impatient and she had told him that she was going to go alone if he didn't go with her that day.

They walked down to Hogsmeade before Dumbledore apparated them to right near the house. They spent the better part of an hour checking the wards and looking for trick enchantments. When they were satisfied that they wouldn't be killed just by opening the door, they headed into the house, wands at the ready.

"Remember, Professor Dumbledore, you're going to be tempted to put the ring on but don't do it. That's how you died, or at least started to die really. But no matter what, do not put the ring on."

Dumbledore nodded and they continued through the decrepit house. It was in shambles and pieces of the ceiling were falling every now and then. Finally, in the back of the house there was a chest and Hermione just had a feeling that they would find the ring there.

Hermione opened the chest and levitated the ring onto the floor in front of them. She watched as Dumbledore was barely able to keep himself from putting the ring on, she knew he wouldn't be able to destroy it. Hermione found herself tempted to put the ring on as well, there were so many of her loved ones that she longed for everyday but she knew what was important. She pulled the sword from her bag and raised it over her head bracing herself for the blow.

She brought the sword down on the ring hard and was thrown back into the wall by the force of the Horcrux exploding out of it. The ring gave out a cry before the black smoke disappeared, the Horcrux in the ring dying. Hermione stood up slowly testing to make sure that she didn't break anything. Besides being sore tomorrow, Hermione was fine.

"Are you alright, Professor?" Hermione called out.

"Yes, Hermione, I am. And you?"

"I'm good." Hermione put the sword back in her bag and picked up the now dead Horcrux. The ring was absolutely destroyed but the stone was fine. Hermione pulled out a small pouch and put the stone in there before slipping it back into her bag. She noticed Dumbledore watching her with the stone. "I'm sorry Professor but I can't let you have it. The Deathly Hallows overtook your life and I'm not going to let it happen to you again. Seeing her won't make you happy and you know that. You have to make peace with it."

Dumbledore nodded gravely and Hermione pretended not to notice his eyes tearing. She linked her arm with his offering him comfort as they traveled back to Hogwarts.

* * *

Four days later Dumbledore was acting suspicious. He was extremely chipper, even for him and he kept looking at Hermione and giving a small laugh. It was infuriating to Hermione who just wanted to read her book and eat in peace.

Eventually she gave up, put her book down and ate as fast as possible before retreating to the library where eventually, an owl found her.

_H,_

_You were right. I made a big mistake, I need your help. Meet at entrance of FF ASAP._

_R.A.B._

Hermione made sure no one was looking before she burned the note. Thinking she knew exactly what this was about, she penned a note to Dumbledore saying that one of her people came through. She would have liked to take Dumbledore with her but she didn't want to spook Regulus again.

Before leaving Hermione made sure she put two bottles of water in her bag. If she was right, she didn't want to touch that water.

When she got to the entrance of the Forbidden Forest, Regulus was there, pacing and looking disheveled. He jumped when Hermione approached him.

"Regulus, what's happening?"

"I made a big mistake!" The boy shouted. She could feel he was almost crying, but somehow managed to hold his tears. "I shouldn't have shut you out. I'm in way too deep now, not even Dumbledore could help me."

"Regulus, take a deep breath! It's ok, I can help you. Just tell me what's going on," Hermione said in a calm, soothing voice.

"Ok. The Dark Lord asked for a House Elf for a task so I volunteered mine, Kreacher, but I ordered him to come back to me when he was done. That's the only reason he made it out of there. The Dark Lord made him drink a poison and put a Horcrux in a bowl. Horcruxes Hermione! They're the most despicable form of magic. I'm going to go destroy it, I just wanted to say thank you for believing in me and I'm sorry I didn't believe in you. Tell my brother I'm sorry too."

"Tell him yourself. I'm coming with you and we're both going to live. Believe in me, ok Regulus?" He looked scared but eventually he nodded and he apparated them to the cave where the Horcrux was hidden.

"It needs a blood sacrifice," Regulus started to say. Before he could do anything else, Hermione made a small slice on her left hand before rubbing it on the wall. The cave opened and Hermione and Regulus walked to the small boat.

"I wouldn't touch the water. Who knows what is in there," Hermione warned. Regulus nodded, and carefully they got in and the boat moved across the water to the small island in the middle. Carefully Regulus helped Hermione out and they walked up to the basin. Hermione could see the Horcrux lying in the bottom of the bowl and even though she knew it wouldn't work, she put her hand in the bowl and attempted to grab it but it was impossible. She looked to the hollow shell sitting on the edge of the basin and made up her mind.

Before Regulus could say anything Hermione dipped the shell in the poison, brought it to her lips, and took a sip.

* * *

**A/N: Ok I know I lot happened in this chapter but I wanted to move things along a bit. It's going to slow down again in like two chapters though. Hope you liked it and let me know what you think!**


	10. Chapter 9

**A/N: This one is un beta'd so apologies if there are any mistakes. Thank you to all my reviewers I love hearing all of your opinions. Also, the poll on my page could use some votes otherwise I'll just decide on my own and I hate making decisions xD Also this one is a little shorter so sorry about that.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. Literally nothing. It's very sad**

**Enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

At the Potter Manor, the group of friends minus Peter was getting ready to travel back to Hogwarts. Peter had said that his mum hadn't wanted him to go back early so he would be joining them with the rest of the students.

Dumbledore had told them that they could come at any time today so they were leaving a little after lunch to travel back to Hogwarts. They all had their apparition license's so they were apparating to Hogsmeade and then walking up to the castle.

Everyone was feeling both excited and nervous. They wanted to see Hermione but they were also nervous that she would continue to ignore them as she had been. Soon, everyone was packed and they headed downstairs to eat before they left for the school.

* * *

Hermione had been able to stand for the first two sips, but now they were halfway through the bowl and she was shaking and crying and sitting, while Regulus force fed her the potion, all the while she was reliving her worst memories.

_Bellatrix was above her carving the most disgusting word known to the wizarding kind into her arm, Hermione was screaming writhing on the floor trying to get her arm away from the knife but it was no use._

_The Cruciatus curse was thrown at her for what must have been the fourth time, she didn't know how much more of this she could take, she was losing her mind._

_They gathered around Fred's body lying cold on the ground. She tried to stay strong for Ron but Fred was like a brother to her too and soon she was sobbing with the rest of the Weasley's. It was then that she noticed the bodies of Remus and Tonks and she couldn't control herself anymore, she was sobbing uncontrollably now._

_Hagrid came through the forest with something in his arms. It didn't take long for her to figure out that it was Harry and she felt like she was dying. Her best friend was lying dead and she couldn't help him anymore. She was the one that was supposed to keep Harry alive and she had failed._

_Hermione watched horrified as Harry and Cedric touched the cup and they disappeared. Harry was gone and she couldn't help him right now. She was overjoyed when they came back until she realized that Cedric had died and Harry had been tortured._

_They were in the Department of Mysteries-_

The bombardment of the memories stopped once Regulus fed her the last sip and she eagerly swallowed it wanting to be done. Weakly she reached into her bag and pulled out the water, Regulus uncapped it for her when she was unable to and he held the water to her lips.

It wasn't until Hermione drank half of the water bottle that she felt like she might be able to stand up. Regulus helped her up, and she leaned heavily on him as they staggered towards the boat.

As soon as they were across the water Hermione breathed a sigh of relief and they exited the cave. Hermione was to weak to apparate so Regulus apparated both of them. Halfway through the walk back to the castle Hermione stumbled for the fifth time and Regulus decided carrying her would be faster and better for Hermione.

She was surprisingly light and Regulus carried her bridal style for the rest of the way up. They entered the castle without seeing anyone but in one corridor they ran into trouble. Specifically seven people's worth of trouble.

"Regulus?" Sirius asked shocked. He stared at his brother in wonder before he noticed the girl in his arms, Hermione had fallen unconscious and Regulus had to admit that it looked bad.

"Uhm hi?" Regulus said sheepishly.

"What did you do to her?!" Sirius yelled, now angry.

"Nothing! I didn't do anything!" Regulus defended himself. "Hermione now would be a good time to wake up and tell them I didn't attack you," he whispered not really expecting anything to happen.

It seemed as if Hermione subconsciously heard him because she moaned and started to open her eyes. She looked at the ceiling and saw that they were in a corridor and started to berate Regulus in a weak voice.

"Regulus you walk so slow. We should be at Dumbledore's office by now. And you didn't use a Disillusionment charm? What if someone saw us?"

"Well I'm taking you to Madame Pomfrey not Dumbledore you nut job. And about someone seeing us…" he trailed off and Hermione looked at the people around her and groaned.

"Oh god, this is just great. Someone go get Dumbledore, tell him to meet us in the Hospital Wing," Hermione ordered. When no one moved Hermione just glared, "Now!" She yelled weakly and Alice and Marlene turned to run to Dumbledore's office. "Now, no one hurt Regulus please one, because one, he didn't do anything wrong and two, if he moves that means I move so I'll probably throw up on all of you."

Regulus held her a little tighter and they all walked towards the Hospital Wing. Since Regulus had been holding her for so long they couldn't walk too fast but he wouldn't hand her over even when the other guys asked to take her. This was their mission and he had to finish it.

Dumbledore was already in the Hospital Wing waiting with Madame Pomfrey when they got there. Dumbledore looked at Hermione and sighed.

"Really my dear, you should have waited me," Dumbledore chided through a smile as Regulus laid her on the bed and stepped back so Pomfrey could start to examine her.

"Hermione I'm just going to make this your permanent bed. You might as well live here if you keep this up," Pomfrey berated her. Hermione knew it was out of concern so she just rolled her eyes but everyone else looked concerned for her.

"We can't drain the poison but I think you know that. It should leave your system within 48 hours but you're going to have to be on an IV and a blood transfusion."

Dumbledore and Pomfrey both expected a fight considering how much she hated the Hospital Wing but they looked down to see she had passed out again. They drew the curtains and everyone stepped back to give Pomfrey and Hermione some privacy.

"She drank the potion didn't she?" Dumbledore asked Regulus. He nodded.

"Before I even said anything she took a sip. She was so prepared though it was like she knew what was going to happen, I only had to force feed it to her for the last half. She even had water in her bag and she said not to touch the water in the lake."

"Did you destroy _it_?"

Regulus shook his head and pulled the locket out of his pocket handing it to Dumbledore.

"Where is her bag?" Dumbledore asked again.

"It's still on her," Dumbledore nodded and he walked behind the curtain and emerged with Hermione's beaded bag before dropping the locket in the bag and putting it back behind the curtain with Hermione.

"I'm sorry but what was that? What exactly is happening?" Sirius half asked half yelled.

"I don't actually know what I'm allowed to say," Regulus admitted looking at Dumbledore.

"Why don't we just say that Hermione was doing some work for me and it can be dangerous sometimes, she will be fine though."

"What was that locket?" Lily asked.

"It was dark magic, and it is instrumental in destroying Voldemort," Dumbledore explained.

"Is that a hor-" Sirius started to ask horrified. There were only a handful of types of dark magic that could invoke that reaction in people and he prayed that he was wrong.

"Yes. It would be ideal if you would not mention that to anyone not in this room, I mean anyone. You can never be sure who is listening," Dumbledore said gravely making everyone in the room nod. "Regulus, I do believe we have things to discuss but I also believe Hermione would skin me alive if I made any decisions without her. For now, go home, act normal and pretend nothing happened. Tell Kreacher you forbid him to talk about this, we'll talk about this when you get back. Good luck."

Regulus nodded and left the rest of them in the Infirmary. Just after he left they heard a groan coming from behind the curtain. They all rushed to open the curtain to see Hermione blinking her eyes open.

She looked around and noticed a person missing. "Where's Regulus?" Hermione croaked out, her throat still dry from the potion.

"I sent him back to his house-"

"What? I didn't even-"

"I know," Dumbledore cut her off. "I told him to act like nothing happened and order Kreacher to say nothing, and that we would talk about it when you were better and could be present," Dumbledore placated her. Hermione smiled and relaxed though for only a moment.

"Where's the _thing?"_

"In your bag. They saw it and Sirius guessed what it was. I told them all not to say anything to anyone outside of this room but you may have to tell them something."

"Sir?" Hermione asked cautiously, was he telling her to tell them that she was from the future? There was no way.

Dumbledore shook his head and Hermione understood.

"I've been doing work for Dumbledore. I haven't been completely honest about my past. My parents didn't just die, they were murdered by Death Eaters. When Dumbledore heard he offered me a chance to come here and fight and help him. That's why I've been distant, my work almost got you guys killed and I was getting distracted," Hermione explained, that was basically the truth, she was just leaving out the future part. "Wait what are you guys even doing here?" She asked as if remembering that they were there for the first time. She looked accusingly at Dumbledore. "You had something to do with this didn't you? I-"

"Yes I did my dear. You've been working too hard and our work is done for the break. Although I didn't think you would be spending time in the Hospital Wing. I will leave you to it now. I don't want to see you again until school begins again."

Without another word Dumbledore left leaving Hermione alone with some very confused people.

"So," Sirius started, "why don't you start from the beginning."

"What beginning? I just told you the whole story," Hermione said.

"You're destroying Horcrux's Hermione?!"

"Sirius! Keep your voice down are you kidding! You don't just blurt that out. But, yes I am," Hermione added sheepishly.

"Are you trying to get yourself killed?!" Marlene chimed in. James also looked disgusted but everyone else looked confused.

"It's a piece of his soul. He can't die if he has them, they anchor a piece of his soul to the earth. They're vile, the darkest magic in the world," James explained. The others looked to Hermione as if she was going to dispute what James said.

"No that's pretty much it."

"Hermione you should have told us what was happening, we would have understood. We could have helped!" Lily exclaimed. Hermione thought about arguing but figured since they knew this much she might as well apologize and be done with it.

"I know I'm sorry I just, after the incident at Hogsmeade I didn't want you guys getting hurt. I'm sorry," Hermione tried to placate them.

"Does this mean you're going to stop ignoring us?" Hestia asked hopefully and everyone started laughing.

"Yeah I guess it does," Hermione chuckled.

They sat talking and catching up for a few hours before Madame Pomfrey shooed them away saying that Hermione needed rest. They grumbled but obliged except for Sirius who hung back. Madame Pomfrey was going to yell but she saw the look on his face and settled for glaring before walking into her office.

"What is it Sirius?" Hermione asked concerned.

"My brother, he's actually good? How long have you known?"

"I've had my suspicions for a while. He would ask me questions that hinted. But when I encouraged him to talk to Dumbledore it spooked him so I couldn't take the chance. This was only confirmed today when he contacted me."

Sirius nodded slowly to himself before asking another question.

"You've been seen more often with Snivellus," he dragged the sentence off.

"You really shouldn't call him that Sirius," was all Hermione said in response. Sirius nodded again.

"I'm glad you aren't ignoring us anymore," Sirius said before ruffling her hair and leaving to join the rest of his friends.

"Me too," Hermione whispered a smile on her face and warmth spreading through her body.


	11. Chapter 10

**A/N: Thank to as always for the response for last chapter. And to my lovely beta Gaby. Next chapter will be up around Thursday**

**Disclaimer: I make no money off of this and I own nothing.**

* * *

The rest of the break went surprisingly fast for Hermione. The group decided that they wouldn't talk about the war or anything morbid, which made the time traveler extremely grateful. Whenever she had to talk about the war, Hermione feared she would give too much information, endangering the people she had come to love so much.

This was their last chance to act as kids and they were going to take it. They would play in the snow, acting like small children, they would sneak food from the kitchens, and Hermione taught them how to work the Room of Requirement.

Currently, it was their last day before classes started again and they were all sitting in the Room of Requirement in a circle. Peter had finally joined them the day before, saying that his mom had finally agreed to let him go. Remus and the boys all looked nervous and, considering the whispers she managed to hear amongst the boys, Hermione had an idea of what they were about to do and she couldn't help but smile.

"So, uhm... I trust you guys, we all do, and I think it's time I tell you something I should have told you a while ago," Remus took a deep breath. Hermione had never seen him so worried before, which only confirmed what she had previously considered. Remus lowered his gaze so as to stare at his own shoes and finally found courage to say it. "I'm a werewolf."

No one looked shocked. Apart from Remus, that is.

"We know," Lily was the one that spoke.

"What do you mean you know?" Remus asked flabbergasted.

"What, do you believe that those idiots could figure it out and we couldn't?" Lily asked with a teasing tone.

Remus shook his head smiling slightly, while the other Marauders said 'hey!', each of them wearing a different, and funny, frown.

"So you don't care?" He said, shyly looking from girl to girl.

"Of course not, you silly man," Lily said smiling before she got up and hugged him. Alice, Hestia and Marlene followed suit.

"Hermione?" Remus asked slightly concerned. He was almost positive that she knew, he actually thought that she was the one who was brewing those potions for him. But maybe he was wrong and he misread the entire situation. But then Hermione smiled and Remus knew it was alright.

"Where do you think those potions have been coming from?" Hermione asked with a wry smile. Remus laughed and jumped up, hugging Hermione and spinning her in a circle, happy that his suspicions were confirmed.

"So the second part of this was…" Remus trailed off and nodded at James, Sirius, and Peter. With a smile all three changed into their animagus forms. This, it was clear, the girls were not expecting because they all jumped and screamed when they transformed.

"They did this so that they could be with me during the full moon. It actually helps a lot." Remus added, laughing at the girls, who had their mouths gaped in shock.

Hermione watched with a smile as they all interacted. Padfoot was running around like a puppy jumping on everyone and licking them. Wormtail had been picked up by Alice who was petting him, and Lily had walked up to Prongs, who, because of its size, didn't move much so as not to hurt the others and stood with majesty near the wall, and was hesitantly petting him.

"This is absolutely amazing you guys!" Hestia exclaimed, right after that they all changed back.

"Your turn Hermione," James said. Hermione turned and glared at him.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

But James just looked pointedly at her and Hermione sighed. She had hoped to keep her form a secret from Peter but it wasn't that big of a deal so, with a final playful glare at James (which earned her a smirk), Hermione changed into her lioness form.

Once more, and this time including the other Marauders, everyone was shocked.

"That is amazing!" Sirius was the first one to talk. Soon, similar sentiments were coming from the other mouths. Hermione shook her head and changed back.

"It's getting late, we should probably get going," Hermione said when she changed back. They nodded and headed back to their dorms talking excitedly, Hermione walking slower with Hestia.

"You're the best at potions, right?" Hermione asked the girl.

"Uh... I guess," Hestia said humbly.

"Ok, I'm going to teach you the potion for Remus."

"Why? You already know it and you're probably better at it than me," Hestia said. Hermione looked at her pointedly. "You're not going to die Hermione," she said sharply.

"Look, it's just a precaution. It doesn't make sense for only one person to know it," Hermione explained. Reluctantly, Hestia nodded.

* * *

Everything had been going well. It was now late February and Hermione was pleased at how well everything was going. Severus, though taken aback by her renewed friendships, had become close to Hermione, and just the previous week had agreed to talk to Dumbledore about becoming a spy.

Regulus had already agreed to spy and, in the coming summer, he was going to sneak into the Black vault and take the Horcrux before it became a Lestrange vault and he no longer had access. They had a lead on the Diary, they believed it was in Malfoy Manor and they were working on a way to get in. Hermione was positive that Nagini wasn't a Horcrux yet but over the summer she had decided to go to the zoo and take care of him just in case.

Everything was looking up and it seemed like the war could be over before Hermione was even born in September. Despite how well everything was going, Hermione couldn't help but feel that something bad was going to happen very soon.

She hated being right about this stuff.

With everything that had happened Hermione forgot about the fight way in the beginning of the year with a few Death Eaters and Bellatrix. Bellatrix apparently, had not forgotten. The past week, she had been shoving into Hermione and trying to taunt her to get a rise. Hermione learned how to block her out but one day she couldn't do it.

She was walking back to the dorms for her free period with Sirius, Hestia, and Remus when she felt a shock on her shoulder. She yelped in pain before turning around wand out, to see Bellatrix smirking at her.

"Oh did that hurt?" Bellatrix asked with fake sympathy. Hermione grit her teeth and turned around to walk away when another spell hit her in the leg, making it feel as if it were on fire momentarily.

"What's the matter? Too scared to fight?" Bellatrix taunted.

"Hermione, it's not worth it," Sirius reasoned. Hermione nodded and was about to leave when Bellatrix whispered something.

"_Mudblood_," the scar on her arm burned in fury and Hermione dropped her books in anger before shooting off a cutting hex.

Bellatrix dove out of the way but not fast enough as it sliced her shin. Hate filled her eyes as she sent another fire hex at Hermione, who brought up a shield just in time.

There was a small crowd watching now, including the rest of Hermione's friends and Severus and Regulus. No one had moved to get a professor, though one would probably come along soon anyways.

They had been going for ten minutes now and neither had made a considerable hit against the other. Hermione, wanting to end it, sent a burning hex at Bellatrix, which hit her in the side, and the witch gave a short scream of pain before sending a slicing hex, which caught Hermione in her left arm.

Hermione felt more than saw the fabric that was hiding her ugly scar fall away. In anger she shot the stunning hex at Bellatrix, it hit her in the leg and she fell the floor unconscious.

While the Slytherin's that were watching had grabbed Bellatrix and left, the eight Gryffindor's that were there hadn't moved. Hermione looked down and saw that not only was her arm bleeding but the scar was out for everyone to see.

_Mudblood_

All of her friends were staring at it with disgust; even Peter was looking at her scar in disgust. Hermione pulled her arm against her stomach and picked up her bag before turning and walking back to the tower. None of her friends moved to follow her. They had all been shocked into silence and were immobilized.

Finally, James spoke.

"Did I really see that?" He asked, not even trying to hide the disgust and pain in his voice.

"Yeah, you did Prongs," Sirius said in a low voice.

"Who would do that to someone? I know there's a war going on but that is vile! How did she get that?" Alice asked slightly hysterical.

Lily just looked like she was going to be sick. Her face was pale and she was leaning against the wall for support.

"Lils?" Marlene asked gently. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah I just," she shook her head. "I always knew it was dangerous for people like me and that a war was going on, and I knew I was going to fight, but that, I guess it just hit me is all."

James walked closer to her and rubbed her shoulder gently. He gave her a kiss on the side of the head before speaking.

"I'll protect you Lily. I swear I won't let anything happen to you," he whispered in her ear before hugging her.

"How many do you think she has?" Hestia asked.

"What do you mean?" Remus questioned.

"Scars, I mean. We've seen her in short sleeves so clearly she had a glamour on, I'm just wondering how much she's had to endure that we can't see."

The others stopped for a second, each pondering the question before Sirius started walking back to the Gryffindor Tower and they all followed him.

Unsurprisingly, Hermione wasn't in the Common Room when they got there so Hestia walked up the steps on the girls side to find her and try and bring her down.

"Hermione?" she asked gently, closing the door gently behind her.

She opened the door to the bathroom where she heard a whimper coming from and saw Hermione sitting on the floor against the wall. Her head was hung and she was cradling her arm to her chest.

"Hermione?" she repeated, not wanting to startle her. The girl in question looked up, smiling sadly at Hestia. There were tear streaks on her face and her eyes were red. Hestia slid down the wall to sit next to her and wrapped an arm around Hermione. Hermione leaned into her, leaning her head on her shoulder.

"Are you alright?"

"You all saw the scar, didn't you?" Hermione asked a question of her own instead.

"Yes."

Hermione nodded before letting her arm fall from her chest so the ugly scar was visible again. Hestia shuddered but couldn't bring herself to look away from it.

"It's not wrong, you know. Technically, I am one. I'd gotten used to being called it. I was called it my whole life. Hell, I was petrified for being one, and hunted, and tortured. But this, it's permanent and it's going to follow me everywhere. I'm proud of what I am. But that doesn't change the fact that there's a whole group of people trying to get rid of people like me."

Hestia's eyes popped as Hermione casually commented on her terrible treatment but she said nothing. After a few moments, Hermione began talking again.

"I was thinking about how I got this, and everything that happened around that time."

Hestia just nodded but knew better than to push, even though she desperately wanted to get a bit more information.

"I suppose everyone is downstairs waiting for me?" Hermione asked with a hint of joking in her tone. Hestia smiled at her and nodded.

After a minute, Hestia nodded once more and stood up, helping Hermione up as well. Hermione smiled her thanks and washed her face off, trying to not make it as obvious that she was crying before repairing her robes so that there was fabric covering her arm again. Hestia smiled sadly at her arm before they walked into the Common Room together.

"Not here," was all Hestia said when the group stood up at once; she led them out of the Gryffindor Tower and to the Room of Requirement.

They let Hermione make the room because she was the one that was upset. She walked back and forth three times and they walked in when the door appeared. Hermione was somewhat shocked to find herself in what looked like the living room from Shell Cottage. Though, she supposed this was where she went right after the incident and where she realized that she was safe, if only for a few days.

She closed her eyes for a brief moment ignoring the others and remembered Harry and Ron, and Luna, and Dean, and she was sure that she never longed for Harry and Ron more than she did at that moment.

She opened her eyes and smiled sadly before sitting on the replica of the couch that she spent a few nights on. The others gathered around her and looked to her waiting for her to begin.

"Ok so, I kind of revealed more to Hestia than I meant to, so I might as well just tell you since she knows," she looked to her friends and saw their encouraging smiles, Remus, who was sitting to her left grabbed her hand and squeezed it to give her support.

"Last year, I was on the run from Voldemort and at one point I got captured. I was only there for a few hours, someone helped me escape, but when I was there, I was tortured and that's when this happened."

Remus had wrapped his arm around her and pulled her closer to him when she said that she had been tortured, and Marlene who was sitting on her right, grabbed onto her leg as if to make sure that she was still there.

Everyone else looked murderous.

"Who?" Sirius spat out.

"What?"

"Who did that to you? I need to know who I'm supposed to kill."

Hermione expected someone to jump in and say that he wasn't killing anyone and that he was being irrational. No one said anything. It looked as if everyone had agreed with him.

"Sirius Black, you're not killing anyone." Hermione glared at him, trying to make him see reason, but she could only see stubornness in his eyes. She sighed before continuing. "I have no idea who it was. A nameless Death Eater, no one that I recognized."

She could tell that no one believed her but they didn't push it, trusting that they weren't telling her for a reason. Sirius still looked murderous so Hermione asked the Room for a punching bag and a wizard dummy so that he could let some steam off. And he did, for about thirty minutes. Hermione was impressed with the spells he was throwing and with his endurance but didn't comment on it.

"Hermione, is this," James trailed off a bit looking uncomfortable. His resemblance to her best friend was so uncanning that Hermione couldn't hold his gaze, so she stared at her lap instead. Lily nodded and that seemed to be enough for James. "Well, we've always known that you were hiding something and we thought helping Dumbledore was it," Hermione glanced at Peter alarmed but thankfully James moved on from that. "But now you've just told us that you have been tortured. I just... what else has happened to you?"

Hermione was startled by the question but she supposed she shouldn't be since she probably would have asked that if it had been Harry. In fact she had asked it numerous times. She didn't know how much she wanted to reveal though. Anything could be checked and someone could figure out that she was from the future from what she said.

"That's really the biggest thing. I have a small scar on my neck that I don't even need to glamour, it's so light that no one really notices once I put a bit of make up on it. And I've got this one."

She shed her robe and was pleased when no one glanced at her arm for more than a second. She pushed her shirt over her shoulder exposing the upper part of her chest and waved her wand. Her skin tingled for a minute as the glamour disappeared before the scar showed up. She hadn't looked at this one in a while. It was easy to hid from since it was on her chest. Almost every article of clothing covered it so it was never something she looked at a lot. Now she was glad for that. It wasn't red anymore, it was almost a three-year-old scar, it was dark purple and raised slightly, it was about a half an inch thick and was slightly jagged. Though you couldn't see from what Hermione was wearing, it stretched diagonally down and touched the beginning of her ribcage on her other side.

"Oh my!" Marlene exclaimed. Everybody looked disgusted and quite a few of them, like Remus, James, Lily and Sirius looked as if they were in pain, just for seeing their friend in this condition.

"Yeah, I didn't actually think that one was that bad, I haven't looked at it on a while." Hermione said sheepishly.

"When did that happen?" Alice asked.

"My fifth year. It was a flame something or other curse. It wasn't spoken so I don't really know exactly what it was."

James looked like he wanted to ask her more questions but Lily shook her head and for that Hermione was thankful. She had revealed more than she ever wanted to tonight. Sensing that the conversation had ended everyone slowly got up and headed back to Gryffindor Tower.

Grateful that they weren't going to ask anymore questions Hermione walked back to the Tower with them, arm in arm with Lily.


	12. Chapter 11

**A/N: I know I said you would get this yesterday but life got in the way, sorry about that. I also apologize for this chapter, I rewrote it like three times and I still don't like it very much even though my beta Gaby did amp it up a bit for you guys. This is going to be the last chapter at Hogwarts. After this they're starting in the real world/war. Thanks to everyone that continues to read or just started to I love the feedback I'm getting.**

**And I still own nothing, sadly.**

* * *

There were only two weeks left in April and Hermione was surprised with how fast her year here had been going. She supposed that since she was doing so much, she didn't seem to see the time passing by, that was why. She would meet with Dumbledore every Friday and discuss tactics and go over what she remembered happening around this time. She knew Voldemort was getting stronger; the signs were there even if no one was paying attention to them.

Hermione sat in on Order meetings, which caused an uproar at first because she was still technically a student at Hogwarts. However, with Dumbledore vouching for her and her vast knowledge, they eventually stopped arguing about her presence and started paying attention to what she had to contribute. She was miffed that Dumbledore wouldn't let her go on any missions until she graduated, but she had a feeling that even then he wouldn't let her go on too many anyways because he kept saying something about her knowledge.

Snape and Regulus were doing a good job pretending like they were still loyal Death Eaters. They reported to Hermione and Dumbledore every few weeks with knowledge that even Hermione didn't have.

The days were now spent studying, whether it be by the lake or in the library, for the upcoming NEWT's. Although Hermione was studying along with the others, and harder than some of them, she wasn't going crazy like she had with her OWL's. She was most certain she wouldn't be taking a job after graduation, and she had more important things to worry about, so, even though she wasn't necessarily relaxed, she didn't worry too much about her upcoming tests.

However, right now they were celebrating Gryffindor's latest win over Hufflepuff in Quidditch by having a picnic by the lake, and there was even going to be a party in Gryffindor tower later that night. They were acting like the teenagers that they were, pretending as if in two short months they wouldn't be graduating and probably joining the fight against Voldemort.

Since Hermione's group of friends were smarter than most, they had already been informally accepted into the programs of their choice. Each person was told that this was dependent on his or her NEWT scores but as long as they got the scores they needed, they were to be accepted.

Marlene was going to St. Mungo's to start her training to be a healer, Lily was offered a position in a charms study program in Scotland where she would work to develop new charms and perfect troubled ones. Peter had gotten a job as an assistant in the ministry. Sirius, James, Hestia, and Alice were all going to work for the Ministry as Aurors. The only people that were jobless were Hermione and Remus, though Remus' wasn't much by choice, as not many people wanted a werewolf working for them. Hermione, knowing her ex-professor's potential, too pity on him and talked to Dumbledore. Since Remus was joining the order, he was just going to do extra work and Dumbledore was going to pay him for it.

Everyone seemed concerned about Hermione. She had gotten job offers but she knew she couldn't take any. She needed to be available for the Order at all times. Since not many people knew about it, maybe twenty, they weren't in much danger as of right now.

Dumbledore had bought a house that was going to operate as Order Headquarters in the middle of the woods in Scotland. Hermione and Remus were going to be living there full time and Dumbledore was the Secret Keeper. Peter was getting his own flat, while Alice was going to be moving in with Frank, and Lily and James were getting their own place together. Sirius, Hestia, and Marlene were getting a flat together despite Marlene and Hestia's protests.

Hermione laughed to herself remembering how Sirius had walked in on Hestia and Marlene planning to live together. Then he had gone on a rant about how he didn't want to live alone and wouldn't stop bothering them until they finally agreed that he could live with them.

Hermione stopped her thoughts of the future and lay down on the blanket James had transfigured for them. She laid her head on Alice's stomach and smiled when she felt the girl run her fingers through Hermione's bushy hair.

She watched with a content smile on her face as James chased Lily around threatening to throw her in the lake. They were the main reason she was doing this. Yes, saving their future was a big deal, but watching Lily and James and the love that they had for each other made her smile brightly. Harry would have a wonderful childhood with them as parents, she was sure of it.

She looked to her left and saw Sirius putting flowers and pieces of grass in Marlene's hair and trying not to get caught. By Marlene's smile Hermione could tell that she was well aware of what Sirius was doing. Those two were so stubborn sometimes Hermione had an urge to throw them in a broom closet and lock the door, only letting them out once they had snogged.

On her right Hestia, Remus and Peter were sitting in mostly silence but every so often one of them would make a remark.

Hermione closed her eyes with a peaceful look on her face. She had a soft smile as the sun warmed her body. She took in the smell of the lake and flowers and the sounds of Lily's laughs and the feel of the warm breeze. She was sure that with that moment she would produce a very powerful patronus.

This was a memory that would stick with her for a while.

* * *

A month had passed since the day at the lake and nothing eventful had happened. Hermione found herself on edge, waiting for an attack that would never happen.

She scoured the Prophet looking for signs of his rise. There were a few and only if you knew what you were looking for. Some disappearances here and there but nothing extremely major. He hadn't made his big strike yet, and Hermione realized that it would be after graduation that the strike would come. To the McKinnon family. She had already discussed this with Dumbledore and the precautions had been made but she was still wary.

She was pulled from her thoughts when a large, black owl dropped a letter in a black envelope in front of James at breakfast. He looked concerned as he went to open it but Hermione stopped him.

"Don't open that here," she warned him. He looked up at her and seeming to understand he nodded sticking the note in his bag before continuing his breakfast.

James didn't get a chance to open the letter until after dinner that night, so they were all sitting in the boy's dorms, not wanting to be disturbed. He had used all his knowledge (and in Hermione's opinion, it was quite impressive) to check if the letter had any kind of curse on it, but in the end he decided it wasn't a threat to any of them. Shakily, James opened the envelope. Lily squeezed his shoulder and James read the letter.

Hermione was surprised when James started laughing. She had assumed that James would get angry when he read the letter, assuming she was correct at the contents but instead he was laughing so hard tears were forming in his eyes.

"He is absolutely barking mad!" James finally calmed down enough to form words.

"Who?" Hestia asked.

"Voldemort." Some people winced, but James continued laughing lightly.

"Wait, he sent you a letter?" Lily asked, shocked. "What did it say?"

"He's trying to recruit me. He thinks I'm a fine Pureblood and would be a good edition to his ranks," he finished in an arrogant tone that was supposed to be mocking Voldemort. "Does he not remember that the Potter's are Blood-Traitors? Or that I'm dating a Muggle-born?"

"You know what you should do?" Sirius started mischievously. "You should bring the letter down to breakfast and burn it so the Slytherin's see."

"That's a great idea, Sirius!" James exclaimed, causing Hermione to smack herself in the forehead. If he was going to do stuff like this then it was going to be difficult to keep him alive.

"James, I don't think it's a great idea," Hermione said cautiously. Usually, that would be enough to stop him, apparently not this time though.

"No, I think you should do it," Marlene chimed in.

"Marlene!" Hermione cried out.

"No, he should! Show those stupid robe kissers that not every Pureblood is going to back their insanity."

Hermione conceded that she did have a point, however, she wasn't going to admit that out loud. Instead, she just sighed in defeat and James laughed and gave a short _whoop_ of triumph.

The next morning Hermione was apprehensive to say the least. She hadn't wanted him to do this, but she saw their need to act out and she wasn't going to force him to not do it.

Lily seemed to sense her apprehension and squeezed her leg to try to calm her down.

"It'll be fine. They do stuff like this all the time," Lily soothed. Hermione nodded and relaxed a bit but she was still unsure.

James watched the Slytherins and Hermione wondered how he was getting all of them to look at him. Sure enough, a few minutes later all of them turned yellow with maroon hair and they looked to the Gryffindor table knowing who was to blame.

Smirking, James pulled the letter from his robes and lit it on fire with his wand. By now, most of the hall was watching him as he openly denied Voldemort. There was quiet rage in some of the Slytherin's eyes as the letter was turned to ash.

The quiet was broken when the mail started to come and everyone went back to their breakfasts.

"See Hermione? It's fine," James said.

_For now._

* * *

Hermione smiled in triumph as she walked out of her final NEWT, which had been Potions. She wasn't able to talk to Snape in public anymore since he took the mark so she just gave him a slight nod and a smile before leaving.

"Finally!" Sirius cheered and everyone agreed wholeheartedly. NEWTs had been ten times worse than OWLs and Hermione was glad to see them go. They still had a week before they were officially done with school. The 7th years took NEWTs first and then final exams for the rest of the years and then, finally, OWLs took place. At the end of the week there would be a small ceremony on the lawn with the 7th years and the professors. It was mostly just professors talking and them getting diplomas saying that they completed their seven years at Hogwarts.

In the week before that the group of friends passed the time by flying, laying by the lake and turning the Room of Requirement into different places. Hermione's favorite was when they turned the Room of Requirement into a beach and they spent a day swimming and splashing and laying in the sand.

She also thought that Sirius' and James' reactions to Marlene and Lily in bikinis were absolutely hilarious. She also noticed- though she seemed to be the only one-that Remus was paying more attention to Hestia than he normally did. Hermione would worry about Marlene and Sirius before them she thought, smiling again.

Soon enough, though, the 7th years were gathered on the lawn. They were sat in columns of four with an aisle between each clump, and each clump being a few chairs wide. Each clump was, obviously, a different house, and Hermione was surprised to see that the smallest clump was the Gryffindor one; with nine people they only had two rows. The next smallest was Hufflepuff with ten people, then Slytherin with thirteen and the biggest clump was Ravenclaw which had sixteen people.

They students were sat in their individual classes alphabetically in the order that the clumps were in the great hall. There had been no dress code for the event so the clothes the students wore differed. It was a warm June day so the girls were wearing short dresses that fell above their knees and had short sleeves or straps. Hermione remembered the trip to Hogsmeade and shuddered.

She and Hestia had just wanted to pick up a dress and go, neither one being much for shopping but the other three girls were having none of that. Finally, after what had seemed like hours, they each had a dress.

Hermione's was light blue and flowy at the bottom, it had short sleeves and was tighter around her chest. Marlene's was tighter and a little shorter than Hermione's. Her dress was light purple and she had thick spaghetti straps. Alice was wearing pale yellow and like Hermione, her dress was flowy at the bottom and tight at the top. However, Alice's sleeves went down to just above her elbow. Hestia was wearing a mint green strapless dress that was flowy as well. Lily was wearing white and like Marlene, she had thick spaghetti straps and her dress flared slightly above her knee.

The boys were wearing muggle khaki shorts and polo shirts. Hermione felt a little sympathy for those that were wearing traditional wizard robes because they looked like they were dying from the heat.

The ceremony didn't last long at all. Each Head of House spoke about their house and how they would miss the students in it and how Hogwarts would never be the same without them. In Hermione's unbiased opinion, McGonagall's speech was the best, though she did seem very sincere in her emotion, principally when she made a clear reference to the Marauders. After that, Dumbledore got up and spoke about them as a whole, and how they were all destined for great things. Hermione swore he winked at her when he said that and she smiled at him.

Then, the Heads called the students in their houses and one by one. They went up shook hands with Dumbledore and their Head, received their diploma and went to sit down again. The whole thing lasted an hour.

When it was over the chairs were replaced by tables filled with food and the nine friends enjoyed their last day as students.

At some point, someone got their hand on a camera and photos were being snapped left and right. There was one of all of them and then just the girls and then the Marauders. After that they had done every and any combination that they could think of. Hermione's especially liked the one where James was spinning Lily around, and the one of her on Sirius' back.

As the day wound down they laid on the grass under the stars in silence, enjoying each other's company too much to go back inside.

Tomorrow, they were leaving Hogwarts and officially entering the real world.

And, even more importantly, the war.


	13. Chapter 12

**A/N: We're officially out of Hogwarts and into the real world. This is also about the halfway point of the story. I got some really heartfelt reviews last chapter so than you all I appreciate every single review I get! There was one review asking about the paradox and what not with the time travel and that will be explained at the end of this story!**

**I won nothing :(**

_July 3rd 1978_

They'd been out of Hogwarts for three days now and Hermione felt like she still had mounds of unpacking and cleaning to do. Since she and Remus were the sole full time residents of the HQ they were doing all of the cleaning and shopping and decorating. It wasn't exactly fun, but they both were glad they at least had something to do to keep themselves busy.

Hermione herself hadn't had much to unpack so that portion only took her a few hours to get done. Dumbledore had left them a stash of money to spruce the house up and get food, which was what Hermione did while Remus continued unpacking his stuff.

The second day consisted of cleaning the house. Thankfully, it wasn't very big, only two floors and a basement for potions. The bottom floor had a kitchen, two bathrooms, a living room and a dining area. They had started with the bottom floor since that was where the meetings were to be. After stocking the food and cleaning everything on the first floor, they moved to the second. The second floor was much smaller with only one bathroom and three bedrooms so that took significantly less time to get everything done.

This left the third day, today, for them to finish in their own rooms until the Order meeting. Thirty minutes before the meeting, they both went downstairs to make drinks for the guests and make sure that the room was acceptable. They double checked everything, trying to made the house at least presentable to the other members.

It wasn't thirty-five minutes later that everyone was either sitting or standing in the room. Dumbledore, as the leader of the Order, was seated at the head of the table.

"Thank you all for finding time to make it today. As you can see we have expanded our numbers as these very capable wizards and witches left Hogwarts, finally being able to join us." Their old Headmaster had a small grin on his lips as he skimmed through the room. "They will be very helpful as they are in a wide array of careers. We will not be expanding upon the people in this room for now, though, for I fear if we become too many we will become exposed."

As he stopped speaking, he adopted a sober expression. "Now, as some of you know, we have a handful of spies in Voldemort's ranks. Their identities are being kept secret for obvious reasons but they have been instrumental to our cause. Due to these spies, it has been confirmed that Voldemort is planning an attack in two days time on a prominent Pureblood family."

Dumbledore looked to Hermione who was seated a few seats to his left. She glanced at Marlene quickly and realized that they definitely should have given her some sort of warning. But Marlene was strong and she would be able to keep a level head about this once she was given a minute to process, so she nodded telling him to proceed. Hermione really thought Marlene could handle this.

"That family is the McKinnons." He concluded, gravely.

All eyes flew to Marlene who sat with a shocked look on her face, paling as that piece of information sank in. Lily, who was sitting next to her, squeezed her hand and Marlene let out a deep breath, trying to control the fear that climbed her back. If she managed to control the turmoil of negative feelings that came with that information, nobody knew, but eventually she managed to get some color back in her face and nod to Dumbledore so he could continue.

"Now, since we had prior knowledge of this, we will have Order members and Aurors stationed there, and the McKinnon family has been warned not long before this meeting started. The children will be in a safe location at the time. However, we couldn't convince Mr. and Mrs. McKinnon to leave, as they didn't want to leave their home behind." Dumbledore sighed and started sharing the little information they had.

After that the meeting was quite short. Dumbledore picked a few Order members to be present during the attack, that including Hermione, the Prewett twins and Moody. Hermione's friends seemed a little put out that they wouldn't be allowed to go but Hermione was glad. They were too emotionally invested in this particular attack and they would be distracted. She may have thought Marlene would be able to keep a level head but that might not be true in action and she didn't want to take any chances.

As everyone was leaving Marlene pulled Hermione aside.

"I know why I'm not allowed to go, and the others really too," Marlene started and Hermione was glad she wasn't going to try and get Hermione to beg Dumbledore to let her come. "I just want to say that I'm glad you're going to be there." Hermione smiled at her before she continued. "I'm not putting anything on you, and I won't blame you if anything happens but I just- it makes me a little more comfortable knowing that you're going to be there."

"I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure that they're ok." Hermione said, fiercely, trying to convey as much strength and truthfulness as possible in her words. Marlene gave Hermione a tight hug and whispered in her ear.

"I know," she pulled away and gave Hermione a small smile. "You be safe too, ok?" Hermione nodded, with a small smile on her lips.

"Why don't you wait here with Remus that way as soon as it's over you'll know?"

Marlene nodded and squeezed Hermione's hand before leaving with Sirius and Hestia.

* * *

_July 5th, 1978_

The first thing Hermione registered was how huge McKinnon Manor was. The place was a mansion, literally. She was crouched low in the woods surrounding the property with Gideon and Fabian on her right and an auror whose name she didn't know on her left. She was dressed in a tight black t-shirt and black cargo pants with combat boots, her hair was up in a bun so it would stay out of her face.

Moody was in charge of the plan, and, according to him, they were to wait for the Death Eaters to apparate to the surrounding area and then stun as many of them as possible all at once before the fight started.

However, they'd been waiting for almost an hour now and Hermione was worried that Snape or Regulus were given faulty information to see if they were spying. She felt a flare of panic that her spies had been compromised, and that panic grew by the minute until it started to feel unbearable.

Finally, those thoughts were dispelled when twenty Death Eaters apparated into the area. As one the Order and Auror's rose and shot off the stunning curse, knocking almost half of them unconscious and making the rest look around in confusion for a minute before the actual duel started. Hermione raced forward behind Gideon and Fabian. She was trying to get as close to the door as possible to keep her promise to Marlene. She got within ten feet of the door before a curse made a slice on the back of her calf, causing her to turn around and duel.

She had her wand at the ready to face the masked Death Eater. After throwing a few curses back and forth, Hermione realized who she was dueling. The spells, hexes and curses thrown were quite easy to block, if you ignored the occasional unforgivable curses. The wizard was slender, which ruled out the weak, troll like Death Eaters such as Crabbe, Macnair, Goyle and Bulstrode. That left only one Death Eater who had insignificant magical ability and still threw dark curses.

"Really, Malfoy, you're hiding behind a mask?" she shot out right before sending a burning hex and catching him in the foot.

"I don't have to answer to you Mudblood," he bit out just before he sent the Killing Curse at her, taking the advantage that she had stopped sending hexes towards him. She dove out of the way, but barely. She rolled back onto her feet catching her breath from the close call and ignoring the slight pain in her elbow from diving onto it, hissing at the thought of making such a mistake. "The Dark Lord wants you dead, and when he wants someone dead, they die."

"Is he really afraid of a lowly Mudblood? Seems like I should be beneath his interests," she said with a smirk.

"You do not question the Dark Lord," it was the last thing he said before putting his all into the duel, which was getting deadlier as he continued to use the Unforgivable Curses, which had to be dodged instead of blocked.

The Death Eaters must have felt their mark burning because, as one, they all apparated out. Hermione wondered how Voldemort would know to call them out or why he would and Hermione realized they must have been losing. She looked towards the woods, seeing a shadow cast over there and she took a few steps closer to see what it was. She was sure she saw a glimpse of him before he apparated away. 'Of course', she thought. 'He would watch as his Death Eaters fought, staying out of the way to avoid getting his hands dirty'.

She heard Moody calling for everyone to come to him so she walked towards the front of the house, glancing back every few steps to the spot where Voldemort had been standing.

It wasn't for another twenty minutes that Hermione was able to go home. They had secured the house and Hermione was joyful to see that both of Marlene's parents were alive. She had brought them back into the house and assured them that she would tell Marlene that they were ok. There had been no casualties this time, on either side, and while Hermione was grateful that no one on their side had died, she was certain that if she had been given just a little more time with Malfoy she would have been able to off him. On a positive side, some Death Eaters had been arrested.

Overall, the mission had been a success so Hermione traveled back to the HQ in a good mood.

"Do you think everything is going ok?" Marlene asked her friends anxiously for the third time within the last hour. Hermione had been gone for almost three hours and everyone, especially Marlene, was starting to get nervous. She had paced for a while but eventually she plopped on the chair and curled her feet under her, just wanting this night to be done.

"They have the upper hand. The Death Eaters have no idea that we have any clue about their plan. We didn't have an exact time which is why it's taking so long, I'm sure," James reassured her from his spot on the floor where he was sprawled out on his back.

"Yeah and there's Auror and Order members there, try not to worry so much," Sirius added, taking his turn at trying to calm Marlene down. Marlene nodded and was quiet for the next twenty minutes when they heard the front door open. When Hermione opened the door, the first voice she heard was Remus'.

"She's back!" he yelled. Hermione was confused as to why he was yelling if there was only one other person in the house. She walked into the living room and wasn't sure why she was surprised to see all her friends. She remembered telling Marlene to stay here but she didn't know if she was going to take her up on it. In hindsight, Hermione should have known that everyone would be here to support Marlene, which made her heart swell and warm up, knowing that her friends cared so much about each other.

She turned to Marlene who looked so anxious that Hermione thought she was going to explode. She was wringing her hands, sitting in the chair next to the fireplace and staring out the window. She snapped her head from the window to Hermione when she walked into the room and immediately stood up.

"You're parents are fine." Hermione said with a smile. "I brought them back into the house when it was all over and I talked to them. I told them that I would tell you they were ok."

Marlene jumped over to Hermione quickly and gave her a tight, slightly teary hug. "Thank you! Oh, thank you so much, Hermione!" She said.

She let go and Hermione gave her a nod and a small smile. Her exhaustion crept up on her then and she flopped onto the couch pulling her shoes off and relishing in the act of being off her feet. When she went to slip her shoe off and her hand came back to her with blood on it, she remembered that she had been hit with a slicing hex.

"Are you bleeding, Hermione?" Alice asked worriedly when she noticed the fresh blood on Hermione's hand. She nodded slightly and turned her head to look at Remus.

"Remus can you grab me the first aid kit?" He nodded and went into the kitchen, coming back seconds later with the kit. "Are you ok?" he asked, concerned, as he handed over the kit.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she said as she pulled up the pant leg that had the cut from the slicing hex. "Just a little slice."

It wasn't too deep, she wouldn't need stitches and it was only two inches long. It wouldn't even scar. She cleaned the wound and stuck some muggle antibiotic cream on it before wrapping a bandage around it.

"See?" she showed her leg to Remus. "Good as new."

He gave her a snarky smile before taking the kit back into the kitchen.

"Remus, could you get me some food? I'm starving," she asked not wanting to move. He heard him chuckle.

"I thought you were as good as new?" He called from the kitchen but Hermione smiled when he brought her out a sandwich and pumpkin juice anyways. She then started telling her friends about everything that had happened, while they eagerly listened.

If this was how the rest of the war went, Hermione thought they might be alright.


	14. Chapter 13

**A/N: I meant to put this up ****yesterday but college got the best of me, sorry about that. As always thank you to my wonderful beta Gaby. Also, thank you to everyone who is ready this story has over 1,000 visitors and I couldn't be more grateful! You are all so wonderful, so keep it coming!**

**And I still own nothing which is very sad, and I make no money off of this which is even more sad.**

**Hope you enjoy the next chapter!**

* * *

_July 20th, 1978_

Of all the things that Hermione had to do, this by far seemed the most ridiculous. She was on her own, sneaking into a muggle zoo in Surrey during the night so that she could kill a snake. She had argued for ages with Dumbledore the pros and cons of whether or not she needed to kill the snake, or if it was smart to do so. Eventually, they came to the conclusion that it was better safe than sorry.

So now Hermione was sneaking into a closed zoo with a large bag that held an exact replica of Nagini so that no one would know the difference. All of the cameras had been disabled in the reptile house which she apparated straight into. Even if it was dark, considering it was a bit late, she couldn't help but take a look around, curious to see the sleeping animals. Sadly, though, it was far too dark for her to see anything other than the first cubicle that conveniently had Voldemort's possible pet.

Hermione set the duffle bag she was carrying at her feet and vanished the glass. Before Nagini could even move, Hermione stunned it and put the replica in the cage before repairing the glass. She stuffed Nagini in the bag the previous snake had been in and apparated out to HQ. It didn't take more than ten minutes and Hermione swore she was holding her breath the entire time for fear of being caught.

Dumbledore was waiting for her when she got back. Remus was in a shack in the yard since it was a full moon and James, Sirius and Peter were with him. The full moon being tonight was the main reason she chose this night. She knew she was being slightly ridiculous since they all knew she worked for the Order now and that she had been helping fight Voldemort for a while, but she didn't want them to know just how much work she was doing. The boys would worry and hover and the girls would always ask if she was ok and she definitely didn't want to explain why she was killing a snake that she was pretty sure that hadn't been turned into a Horcrux yet.

"Good evening, my dear." Dumbledore whispered with a smile when he saw her, and moved to follow her into the basement after she nodded her 'hello' to him.

She set the duffle bag on a table and opened it to see the still stunned Nagini. Dumbledore levitated the heavy snake out and onto the table. He grabbed the Draught of Living Death and gave a small bit to Nagini. Since Snape was the only one that could make it to the degree needed- much to Hermione's annoyance- they only had a small supply.

Once they were sure Nagini was dead, or as close to dead as it would get with that potion, they cut the body up and burned it. Hermione thought that this was the definition of overkill but Dumbledore wanted to be sure that there was no way the snake could come back so Hermione went along with it. They had everything cleaned up and all traces of the snake gone well before sunrise.

* * *

_August 1st, 1978_

Hermione and Remus sat on the couch reading silently. It was a rather uneventful day filled with food shopping and light potion making so they were occupying their time with books.

They had gotten their NEWT scores back the day before, both of them scoring extremely well. It was sad to say, though, that yet, at the end of the day, they would be jobless. Hermione was pretty sure that everyone would get letters about their job today or tomorrow.

Alice was the first one to join Remus and Hermione with Frank trailing behind that night with news that she'd been accepted into the Auror program. Hermione and Remus had both hugged her saying how happy they were. Frank had kept his arm around his girlfriend and looked at her with a proud smile the whole night.

Lily and James showed up next with good news as well, and then Peter and lastly Hestia, Marlene and Sirius. Each person had good news and they stayed until past midnight talking about the future.

When everyone had gone Hermione and Remus laid on the couch again.

"When did our house become the meeting place for everyone?" Hermione groaned.

"Well, technically, it's not our house." The boy chuckled. "And I don't really know."

"Does it bother you?" Hermione asked after a few minutes of silence.

"Them being here?" He seemed to think for a second. "No, not really, though sometimes I wish we had a warning."

Hermione bit her lower lip. "No, I meant that they're all talking about their futures." She said.

"I thought it would, and maybe it does a little bit. But it's not their fault that no one wants to hire me, and I like hearing them so optimistic about the future. It's nice." He said, with a smile.

Hermione thought that he did have a point, and that there was probably not a sweeter person in the world than Remus Lupin.

"You'll get something, I'm sure of it."

Remus gave Hermione another smile and a kiss on the head before they both headed to bed.

* * *

_September 1st, 1978_

Hermione was alone in the sitting room that evening, the windows opened to allow a breeze and to air out the house. Remus was in the basement making potions for Dumbledore and even with all the spells cast there, Hermione thought the sitting room still felt like a potions lab itself. She turned a page in her book when a letter from Alice came attached to an owl. She opened it and read the letter smiling before getting up to call to Remus.

"Remus, come up here!" Hermione called down the basement door.

"What's wrong?" He asked slightly out of breath.

"Nothing's wrong. Go change though, we're going to Frank and Alice's. Alice just wrote that she had news for us all and I'm betting Frank proposed."

Remus smiled and dashed upstairs, coming back down a few minutes later and the two of them left for Frank and Alice's apartment.

Since their HQ didn't have an open fireplace with a floo but everyone else did, Hermione and Remus were the last ones to arrive there since they had to wait for the owl to reach them.

"Finally!" Marlene proclaimed when they walked through the door. "We've been here for ages, slowpokes!" Hermione rolled her eyes at the girl's behavior, but she had a smile on her face. She and Sirius were a match made in heaven even if she didn't want to admit it.

"So, what did you have to tell us?" James asked, clueless.

Frank wrapped an arm around Alice's shoulder and the two shared a smile. Instead of saying anything, Alice held out her left hand and showed them the ring that was sitting on her finger.

"Alice!" Lily was the first to react and she rushed to the girl giving her a hug and holding her hand out for Alice's hand so she could see the ring more clearly.

"Oh, Alice, it's beautiful!" Hestia said.

It really was. Frank had done amazingly on the ring. It was set on a white gold band and there was one simple diamond situated in the middle of it. It wasn't too big or too small; it was simple and elegant, much like Alice.

Alice slipped the ring off and showed them that on the inside there were three dates engraved: the day they met, the day they started dating, and today's date, the day he proposed.

"Oh, that's so sweet," Marlene chimed in.

"Hestia, will you be my maid of honor?" Alice asked.

"Of course!" Hestia exclaimed hugging the girl tightly.

"You girls will be my bridesmaids right?" She said, turning to the other girls.

"Of course!" Marlene said, with a smile.

"I would love too." Lily giggled.

"Hermione?" Alice asked. Hermione was very surprised by this. She liked the girl, of course, but it had been less than a year since they met. Did she think it would be wise?

"Are you sure, Alice? We haven't known each other very long." She said, slowly.

"Of course, I'm sure!" Alice sounded outraged. "You're one of my best friends as well!"

"Well, then... I would be honored." Hermione said, as a sincere smile grew on her face.

"Great. I can't wait to go shopping."

Marlene and Lily smiled while Hestia and Hermione groaned.

* * *

_November 18th 1978_

It was a crisp November day out when Alice decided it was time to go shopping for bridesmaids' dresses. They had found Alice's bridal gown earlier that month after a week of searching and Hermione was praying the bridesmaids' gowns wouldn't take as long.

The five girls piled into a wedding shop and Alice, Marlene and Lily browsed the store. Hermione and Hestia sat in chairs by the dressing room just waiting for picks to be handed to them. Fifteen minutes later the three came towards them with huge piles of dresses in their arms and Hermione groaned, loudly.

"Each of you takes a dress and we'll narrow it down that way," Alice instructed.

Twenty minutes later, they were down to the last 3 dresses. Hermione, Marlene and Lily stood before Alice and Hestia in their last three picks.

Marlene was wearing a light blue, one shoulder dress that hugged her body and fell just above her knees. Hermione had on a strapless yellow dress that flowed to her knees. Lily had on a mint green dress. It had lace short sleeves and was tight around the chest and waist, letting out a little to where it fell just above the knee.

It didn't take long for them the pick the one Lily was wearing, everyone agreeing that the dress was perfect for an April wedding. Alice beamed as usual when anything wedding related came up and Hermione was glad for something happy for them all to focus on in the dark times.

* * *

_December 25th 1978_

"Waaaake up!" Hermione groaned and rolled over, pulling her pillow over her ear to block out the noise.

"Hermione! Come on, it's time for presents let's go!" The voice got closer and Hermione buried deeper in her warm bed.

"Get up!" The voice was in her room and Hermione braced herself for the cold knowing what was coming next. Her covers were pulled from her and Hermione sat up, annoyed and cold to look at the grinning face of Sirius.

"Why did we agree that Christmas should be here?" Hermione asked the equally grumpy Remus when she finally dressed and made her way to the coffee downstairs.

"It seemed logical at the time. We're having Christmas dinner here tonight with most of the Order so we thought it would be easier having more people here to prepare." He said, unhappy.

"I hate our past selves," she complained making her way to the living room where the rest of their friends were gathered. Everyone else besides James and Sirius looked equally as grumpy as Hermione and Remus. Hermione looked at her watch and when she saw that it was only 6:30 in the morning. She wanted to kill the two boys.

Hermione and Remus passed coffee mugs out to the less awake members of their group and sat down on the couch.

"Since you two got us up at this ungodly hour, you can hand everyone their presents," Hermione ordered. Sirius groaned but obeyed as he and James made small piles of presents in front of each person. As soon as all the presents had been distributed James and Sirius tore into theirs, everyone following behind quickly. Hermione left her pile untouched as she sipped her coffee with a small smile on her face.

"Aren't you going to open your presents?" Remus nudged her and he took a box of chocolates and a potions book out of a box that was from Hermione.

"Yes," she picked up a present that said _from Marlene_ on it. "Just enjoying the morning," she said simply before pulling out several shirts and some Sugar Quills.

It wasn't long before everyone had all their presents opened and laying around them. They laid for a while longer before Hermione heard Remus' stomach rumble next to her.

"Alright, I think it's time to get some food," Hermione laughed moving Remus' legs from her lap. She walked towards the kitchen grateful when she saw Alice and Hestia follow behind her.

"You want some help?" Alice asked. Hermione nodded and smiled in thanks.

"I'll do the eggs and bacon if someone else wants to do pancakes and toast and I think there's some fruit to be cut up," Hermione instructed and opened the fridge to get everything out. Twenty minutes later Lily and Marlene joined to get drinks and set the table and ten minutes after that everyone was eating and for once the room was somewhat quiet.

An hour later the dishes had been cleaned and once again they were in the living room spread out across the entire room.

"What time is everyone coming over?" James asked.

"They'll be here around 5, so we need to be all ready at 3 so we can clean and get the food ready." Remus replied.

"Then we have time to do something?" James asked again.

"Considering you woke us up at 6:30, yes, James we have time to do something." Hermione said, chuckling despite herself.

"Snowball fight!" He called out, jumping up to put his robes, boots, and gloves on. Sirius, Remus, Peter and Frank immediately jumped up and followed, Lily and Marlene shortly behind. Hestia, Hermione and Alice shared a look, rolling their eyes before they finally followed. Hermione smiled as she walked out the door, glad that she had another day of happy memories.

Christmas night had been extremely busy. The boys hadn't listened and it took her forever to get them to come back inside so everyone had time to shower and make themselves look presentable. As she had predicted. She had just barely managed to get the house in order before everyone was there.

Happy Christmas' were exchanged and everyone dug into a delicious traditional Christmas meal. It was mostly pre made from the local supermarket but Hermione would never admit that. After dinner Hermione was introduced to two people she hadn't had the pleasure of meeting yet; Charlus and Dorea Potter, James' parents.

"Hermione, these are my parents, Mum, dad, this is Hermione." He said, with a sincere smile on his lips. It was impossible not to see that James really loved and thought highly of his parents.

Hermione shook both of their hands. "Pleasure to meet the both of you, James speaks highly of both of you." The couple was quite old, but she saw intelligence and happiness in their experienced and wise eyes.

"I have heard nothing but good things about you as well, Dumbledore is very fond of you. You must be a very smart girl," Charlus smiled at her. Dorea agreed with a nod, also smiling.

"Thank you, Mr. Potter," Hermione blushed.

"Please, call me Charlus," Hermione nodded at him. "Well, we must be off but I'm sure that I will see you around."

Hermione said goodbye and moved to the kitchen to do some of the dishes, surprised when James followed her. She started putting leftovers in the fridge before she addressed him.

"Something I can help you with James?" She said casually, trying not to laugh at his expression.

"I met Lily's parents last month," he blurted out. Hermione, not really surprised, didn't react. "And we saw them again yesterday," when he didn't say anything for a minute Hermione sighed and prompted him.

"And?"

Instead of talking he reached into his pocket and pulled out a box making Hermione gasp. She knew what would be in the box before he even opened it. James popped the box open after checking that no one was around and Hermione saw the ring he picked out for Lily. It had a slender, silver band and there was a big diamond set in between two smaller emeralds, the color of Lily's eyes.

"James, it's beautiful," Hermione said sincerely.

"I asked for her dad's permission, he gave it to me. Now I just have to figure out when to do it," he said, nervously.

"Don't worry, Lily loves you. She'll say yes even if you threw the ring at her while she was in the shower," James laughed causing Hermione to worry. "But don't do that!"

"Don't worry, I have a plan," James smirked, doing nothing to stop Hermione's worry.


	15. Chapter 14

**A/N: So I totally suck I know! I meant to have this chapter up yesterday but then when I went to publish I realized I skipped a chapter and I sent my beta the wrong one. Luckily she got this one back to me super fast so I could give it to you guys. I know this update was a smudge longer than others and it'll be that way for another 9 or so days because college finals suck! **

**I'm pretty sure I changed the timeline from canon and I made up Lily's middle name because I don't think her real middle name was ever mentioned. Anyways, I own nothing and enjoy!**

* * *

_January 17th, 1979_

James had actually beat Lily home that day, which surprised her greatly. With the state of everything and recent disappearances, he had been kept at work later and later. One night, Lily had been in bed half asleep by the time he finally crawled into bed with her. But when she arrived home, she saw he seemed to be there already.

"James," She said loudly so he could hear her wherever he was. "Is something wrong?" She asked, worried about the only possible reason he was home so early. "You didn't get hurt, did you?"

There was no answer and Lily wondered if she was wrong in her assumption that he had been home. His work boots were by the door and she could see his Auror robes slung over the couch, which always bothered her but he did it anyways- Lily suspected it was just to annoy her.

She hung her robes on the hook by the front door and traveled to the hallway on the left where their bedroom was located. Feeling a bit silly, she raised her wand, Auror Moody's voice in her ear from their many meetings: **Constant Vigilance.** She opened the door to the bedroom expecting to see James but all she saw was a single lily laying on the bed with a note attached.

_The flower's a portkey_

That's all the note said. It was James' handwriting, and Lily was about to grab the flower when a voice that sounded suspiciously like Hermiones' scolded her in her brain.

_Are you an idiot Lily? Anyone can fake handwriting. This could be a trap; you don't know who left that flower here for you._

When Lily thought about the possibility that the flower could have been left here by a Death Eater who had James, it only made her want to grab the portkey more but she forced herself to think logically.

She picked up the note to examine it a little further; she flipped it over to see if there was anything on the back and to her luck there was.

_Harry._

Now she knew the note was from James. They had been talking about the future more and more lately, choosing to believe that they had a future sans Voldemort. Eventually the topic of kids had come up and when James had said he always loved the name Harry for a son, Lily instantly fell in love with it. They made it their safe word and no one knew it, not even Sirius.

With a surge of confidence, she grabbed the flower and instantly felt the tug at her naval that signaled portkey travel.

She landed on her feet, though she had to take a few steps to balance herself. She wished that she took the time to put her jacket back on because it was not warm where she was. She took in her surroundings and saw that she was on Platform 9 ¾ and she wondered why James wanted her to come here. She had a small flash of panic that she was wrong about the note, but then her eyes settled on a figure on her right and she saw James standing there with a huge smile on his face.

"James, what...?" she asked as he walked towards her. She opened her mouth again slightly to ask him another question but then her jaw went slack and completely dropped when he grabbed her left hand into his and dropped down onto one knee. Her free hand came up to her mouth in shock.

"I saw you for the first time on this platform when we were just 11 years old and I swore to myself that I would marry you one day. Then I spent the next six years being a prat to you and sometimes I still can't believe you're with me. I don't know how I got so lucky," James' eyes were starting to rim with tears but Lily's were flowing freely down her face. "I know we're young, and I know there's a war going on but I've been waiting for this since I was 11 and I can't wait any longer."

With his free hand he pulled a box out of his coat pocket. He let go of Lily's hand so that he could open the box.

"I've got no idea what the future holds. All I know is that I don't want to spend another minute without you by my side. Lily Marie Evans, will you marry me?"

"Yes!" she yelled before he finished the last word.

James' face split into a huge grin and he stood up, grabbing Lily's waist with the hand that was holding the box and her cheek with the other he kissed her with more passion than he ever had. After air became necessary, they pulled back and James slipped the ring onto Lily's finger.

She only had a moment to look at the beautiful ring before James stole another kiss, wrapping now both his hands around her waist and picking her up and spinning her in happiness, his lips never leaving hers. Lily only pulled away when she felt a bright light on her closed eyelid.

She opened her eyes and saw a camera floating a few feet away from them and turned to look at James confusedly who put her down and shrugged his shoulders.

"I figured this is the sort of thing you'd want a picture of," he admitted sheepishly.

She gave him another quick peck on the lips and pulled away, still smiling.

"Thank you James, I would love a picture of this," she shivered reminding her that she was only wearing a jacket and it was below freezing outside. James just rolled his eyes before apparating them back to their apartment.

* * *

_March 1st 1979_

Friday night proved to be uneventful for the girls. The guys had decided that that night would be James and Frank's stag night and had gone out drinking. They weren't doing Alice and Lily's until next weekend because Lily had to go meet her boss tomorrow and didn't want to be hungover when she did that. Instead, they were in HQ laying about and being lazy.

"Two down, three to go," Marlene remarked from her chair. Hermione looked at her from overtop her book but didn't answer, having a pretty good idea where she was going with this.

"What are you talking about?" Hestia asked.

"Those two are already engaged and us three are still single."

"I wouldn't exactly call you single," Hestia smirked.

"Not this again," Marlene groaned. She explained when everyone looked at her again. "Hestia thinks that I fancy Sirius," she said as if it were the most ridiculous thing in the world.

"Uh," was the only sound that came out of Lily's mouth.

"Well don't you?" Alice asked.

"What? No, of course not. That's-that's ridiculous. Stupid really," she stammered out, eyes darting around the room and her cheeks gaining a bit of color.

"You know," Hestia started lightly. "The maid of honor and best man generally share a dance, that'll be interesting to watch."

Marlene's cheeks got even redder before she turned the subject on someone else. "You know Hermione, there's a guy in my training group that I think you would really like. He's smart and he's cute."

Hermione placed her book in her lap and sighed as all the other girls looked at her smiling.

"Uh, that's ok."

"Come on Hermione!" Marlene begged.

"Ok, how about this, when Voldemort is dead you can set me up with whoever you want. Alright?"

Marlene grumbled but she nodded. Hermione was saved from answering any more questions by the sound of someone in the front hall.

"Professor Dumbledore?" Hermione questioned when he walked into the living room. "Did something happen?"

"No, no, nothing has happened." He said, with his grandfatherly grin. "I just came to tell you that there's an assignment for you. There is a possible Death Eater hideout in Wales that I would like you to go check out with the Prewett brothers. They have the information on the location and they will meet you here in two days at noon."

"Professor, can I speak to you in private?" Hermione asked. He nodded and they walked into the kitchen.

"This is how they died Professor."

"I know, that's why I'm sending you with them. With an extra wand you should have a good chance, and they don't have the element of surprise this time. This is important, Hermione," he said gravely.

"Ok. But if something happens, find my brown notebook, it's stashed in my room under a floorboard. Don't pick it up right away, it's warded. It shouldn't take you more than ten minutes to break it though. It'll tell you everything I need to know that hasn't happened yet."

Dumbledore looked like he was starting to second-guess himself so Hermione felt the need to intervene.

"No, you're right, Professor, this needs to be done. Even if things do go bad, sometimes the greater good is a valid reasoning for bad things to happen," Hermione smiled slightly. Though there were a lot of things she didn't agree with Dumbledore on, especially leaving Harry with the Dursley's, sometimes the greater good was worth it. "I'll see you in a few days, Professor."

Dumbledore nodded, gave her a wink and exited the kitchen, and then the house. Hermione sighed and grabbed the open bottle of wine on the counter, pouring herself a glass. She was never one for drinks but she felt like she needed one now.

"What was that about?" Alice asked when she walked back into the living room.

"Just had to go over some details since he won't be here when I leave. I didn't want to bore you guys," she took a sip of her wine and tucked her leg under her, relaxing into the chair before turning her body towards Hestia. "So Hestia, you talked about Sirius and Marlene but I haven't heard any mention of you and Remus," she smiled coyly.

Hestia turned a lovely shade of pink, while Alice cackled in triumph.

"I knew it! I told Frank that but he didn't believe me but I knew it."

Her worries faded for the night as she turned off her brain and relaxed into the night.

* * *

_March 3rd, 1979_

"Don't get too lonely without me," Hermione joked as she hugged Remus goodbye.

"Oh, I'll try my hardest," he said sarcastically. She felt him squeeze her a little tighter, "Just be careful, ok?"

She squeezed him back before dropping her arms and stepping back.

"I'm always careful," she quipped but her smile dropped when he raised an eyebrow and gave her a slightly annoyed and somber look. "Ok, I'll be careful."

"Come on Hermione, it's time to go," one of the twins called from in front of the door.

"See you soon," she said before she turned around to leave.

"Bye Hermione," she turned around and gave him a slight wave before leaving the house with Gideon and Fabian.

The trio apparated to a forest a few miles away from the given coordinates of the suspected safe house. Fabian cast a tracking spell with the coordinates and they were following the piece of paper through the forest.

They were generally quiet, though the twins were making jokes every so often to try to get Hermione to lighten up, but she was finding it hard to concentrate on anything other than the fact the these two were supposed to die today. Eventually, they gave up trying to engage her in conversation and just talked quietly between the two of them.

They stopped a couple hundred yards away from the house. Or where it was supposed to be. The paper said that they were 300 yards away but nothing was visible. Thinking they had been wrong Hermione was about to suggest going back to HQ and seeing if they had different coordinates when she felt something. She didn't know if it was magic or the possibility that someone was watching them.

She was about to cast a spell to see if she could identify any wards when the hair on the back of her neck stood up.

"Be quiet," she shushed the already silent Gideon and Fabian, who were on either side of her, wands at the ready.

When nothing happened she was about to cast the spell for a second time when she heard a twig snap. She spun around, wand at the ready when she saw it was unneeded.

For, surrounding the three of them, coming in on all sides, were a dozen Death Eaters, wands at the ready to attack.

And then they did.

* * *

**A/N 2: I couldn't resist writing a James/Lily proposal so just remember the fluff and don't hate me for the cliff hanger! ;)**


	16. Chapter 15

**A/N: I didn't want to keep you guys waiting too long with a cliffhanger. As always, Gaby is wonderful and makes sure that my story makes sense for you guys.**

**I get more responses after each chapter so thank you all! You're all great and it makes me more excited to write!**

*****This chapter does have death in it so fair warning about that, and also some violence but I don't think it's that graphic but this is my warning just in case*****

**And I own nothing, enjoy the story**

* * *

The curses came fast, and they came deadly. There were colors flying all around her, and it had only been a few minutes of fighting but she knew that the three of them couldn't hold them off for very long, they were already gaining ground. The three Order members were standing in a mini circle, backs almost touching to prevent attacks from behind but Hermione didn't think it was doing them that much good.

She barely heard the curses that the Death Eaters were saying, but she felt them, and she was sure the others did too.

"Reducto!" She heard that voice, as it was right next to her and she heard the spell make contact, and the only thing she thought was that she was glad that one of them was down. The time for mercy flew out the window a long time ago.

She didn't know who it was that fell first. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a green light and when she took a step back, she felt a body behind her.

Trying not to think about it, Hermione fired off more curses, each getting deadlier as they flew off her mouth. Ignoring the seeping wound on her arm that was dangerously close to her artery, Hermione allowed herself a small sense of satisfaction when two Death Eaters fell.

She was getting weaker though and she knew it. She didn't know which twin was alive but she was betting that he was getting weaker too. She took a quick count that was as accurate as she could hope with spells flying while she was still fighting but she thought there was five or six left. They might be able to do that.

Just as she let herself think that, a curse hit her in the chest and she could swear she felt at least two of her ribs crack instantaneously. She glanced at the remaining twin and saw that it was Fabian because they wore robes with initials on them for official business. The two moved so they were closer back-to-back and continued fighting.

She heard Fabian yell something and she thought she heard something loud crack against a tree and then she felt his body weight on hers. She fell forward at the sudden weight and landed on her hands and knees jarring her ribs. Trying to suck in air, she pushed him off her and stood up again, to see three Death Eaters left.

There was no way she was going to survive this.

"Crucio!" Hermione fell forward as the curse hit her in the chest and she landed on her knees, she didn't even bother trying not to scream, she let the sound rip from her throat, her anguish amplifying the forest.

The caster lifted the curse and Hermione faltered a bit but got to her feet and immediately cast a curse, and her previous torturer fell to the ground dead. The remaining two Death Eaters turned on her and started firing curses at the same time. She felt one land on her knee and she felt it shatter before another one immediately sliced her across the stomach and she lost more of the blood she was already rapidly loosing. She was so beaten down that she didn't notice one of her curses hit its mark as one of the Death Eaters fell to the ground.

Blackness crept at the edge of her vision and it was seeping into the center of her eyes. She fired off one more curse and fell to the ground. The blackness covered her vision and the world was lost to Hermione.

* * *

At HQ, Moody nervously watched the parchment that was focused on Gideon, Fabian and Hermione.

After Dumbledore caught sight of the Marauder's Map, he employed Remus to make one for the Order. It was basically a combination of the Marauder's map and the clock that the Weasley family owned. Everyone that was an inducted member of the Order had his or her name programmed into the map. There was a tracking spell so that the member's name had coordinates near it and the map could only focus on a certain perimeter at a time so right now, Moody had it focused on two of his Auror's and Hermione.

He stood up quickly when Gideon's name turned from black to red and then disappeared in an instant.

"Lupin!" He yelled and the person in question came running into the kitchen where Moody was stationed. As soon as Moody saw him he started firing off questions. "Why did that happen?"

"What?" Remus asked confused.

"Gideon Prewitt's name just turned red really quick and now it's gone! Why?" Moody yelled though it sounded like he might already know.

"Red means the person is dying. If the name is gone, they are dead."

Remus stared worriedly at the map as Moody conjured a Patronus to be sent to Dumbledore and Kingsley telling them what happened. Kingsley showed up just as Fabian's name disappeared from the map. Remus was pacing, as Hermione's name was turning redder with each passing second. Dumbledore showed up a minute later and blanched when he looked at the map.

"All three of you, let's go," he held his hand out to Remus, Moody and Kingsley, which had a small shell in it that Remus assumed was a portkey. They quickly grabbed on and drew their wands, ready to attack. However, all they saw around them were bodies. It wasn't hard to spot Hermione as she was the only girl, and Remus rushed over to her. As he did that Moody moved to two Death Eaters who were moaning, lying on the ground in obvious pain. Dumbledore nodded and he handcuffed the two before apparating to the ministry with them.

Remus turned Hermione onto her back and gasped when he saw the amount of blood soaking the ground beneath her. She was unconscious but her saw her chest move slightly as she tried to take in air and he thanked every deity that she was alive, for now at least.

"We have to move quick. Kingsley, have some Aurors come help you with this, I need you to inform Gideon and Fabian's family. I have to get her to St. Mungo's," Dumbledore ordered.

He held his hand out to Remus and he grabbed it quickly as Dumbledore apparated them to St. Mungo's.

* * *

Hermione woke up five hours later. The light hurt her eyes and she shut them as quickly as she opened, groaning at the sudden sensation.

"Hermione?" She heard a voice next to her and she slowly turned her head to the sound, opening her eyes just a crack. She saw Remus' worried face, his eyes red and his hair a mess. She opened her mouth but no noise came out so he grabbed the cup and filled it with water from the pitcher next to it and handed it to her.

Gingerly, she took a sip and felt the cool liquid soothe her dry throat.

"Thank you," her voice cracked out and he squeezed her hand in response.

"You said you would be more careful, Hermione. This isn't careful," he took on a worried tone.

"Am I at St. Mungos?" She asked ignoring his question.

"Yes."

"Where's Dumbledore?" She asked looking around the room, not terribly surprised to find it empty but she knew he had to be around here somewhere.

"He's briefing the Order on what happened," Hermione was slightly confused for the briefest of moments and wished that her confusion lasted longer because then she remembered Gideon and Fabian falling to the ground, dead and she was overcome with sadness. She dropped her gaze to the ground, disappointed that she had failed. Grief was quickly replacing her disappointment for the two young men. They were lively, and smart, and all around good people.

Picking up on her grief Remus sat on the bed next to her and laid his hand on her shoulder. With stiff movements, she laid her head on his shoulder, seeking his comfort.

"Why aren't you being briefed?" She asked curiously after a few minutes of silence and felt his stiffen beside her.

"I already knew what happened," she turned her head to look at him confused and when she saw the disgusted look on his face she knew what happened. "Moody was asking me why Gideon's name disappeared from the map. I told him and he called Kingsley and Dumbledore, and then we portkey'd to you guys, but it was over by the time we got there. Two Death Eaters survived and they're in Azkaban already."

"I'm sorry you had to see that," she whispered. "I know it can't have been easy."

"Well, no. I managed to stay somewhat composed until I got here. I'm just glad you're ok," he said honestly hugging her tighter to him for a second before moving back to the chair he was previously occupying.

A few minutes later a healer came in to talk to her, which was how Hermione learned that she had to stay for the night and possibly the one after that. When she heard that, she angrily pushed herself into a sitting position, leaving her feeling nauseous and dizzy for the next five minutes. She pretended not to notice the smug look from Remus. The healer told her that she lost a lot of blood so she was on blood replenishing potions for the next week, broke two ribs and cracked three, though there was no internal damage from them and they were now healed but she'd be sore for a while. She also shattered her left knee and though it had been healed she wouldn't be able to put weight on it for a few days and she'd be in some pain for the next few days. She had other shallow wounds littering her body but Hermione knew they'd be completely gone in a week tops so she didn't worry about them but she was sure she looked a mess.

Finally, after personally forcing her to take her potions, the healer left Hermione and Remus alone in the room.

"Everyone is going to come by at some point tomorrow to see you, so you should get some rest to deal with them," he stood up from his chair and grabbed his cloak that was draped across it. Before the healer came in, a nurse had poked her head in to tell Remus visiting hours were almost over.

"Remus?" Hermione asked as he was halfway to the door and he already knew what she wanted to know.

"It's the day after tomorrow, so if you're out of here you can go. I'll see you tomorrow Hermione," he said as a sad goodbye and Hermione was alone though she quickly drifted to sleep.

Hermione opened her eyes and again saw another two faces staring at her, but this time they were Sirius and Hestia. She struggled slightly to lift herself into a sitting position and saw Marlene at the foot of her bed looking over the chart that was hanging there.

"Hi guys," she said sheepishly and Hestia immediately grabbed her in hug, Hermione could tell she was trying to be gentle so Hermione gave her a little squeeze letting her know she was ok and Hestia tightened her grip.

"We can't stay long, we have to leave for work soon," she apologized. Hermione looked to the clock and saw it was 8:25 am.

"Not me. I work here and the only reason I wasn't here yesterday is because they had us taking tests all day yesterday and I didn't even know what happened until I went home. But I talked to someone and now I'm assigned to your case," Marlene smirked and Hermione blanched a little bit.

"Why do I feel like that's worse than the shrew old lady I have now?" Hermione joked.

"Maybe because you can't pull any tricks on me and I'm going to make sure you do everything to healer tells you," she smiled and Hermione thought it looked scary.

"She's just worried," Sirius cut in. "We all were," his voice was tense and his hand was clenched around the bed sheet next to her and Hermione grabbed his hand and squeezed, smiling when his hand relaxed.

"I know, I'm sorry, I really am. But I'm ok, I promise."

Sirius' face was still pinched in worry and Hestia and Marlene looked like they wanted to chain her to the bed and never let her go anywhere again, which they probably would do if they could.

They sat in silence for a while. At first it was uncomfortable but slowly, everyone in the room released their breaths and their tension and they sat, close to each other, enjoying the solace and the company. Eventually, Sirius gave her a hug and peck on the head before standing up.

"We've got to go, but we'll see you tomorrow," Hestia squeezed her leg and followed Sirius out the door.

"Bye guys," Hermione called when they were at the door. As they walked out Hermione's healer walked in to check her blood and her knee. As he did that, Marlene left the room and came back in with Hermione's potions. She took them without arguing, making Marlene smile.

"I've got to go check in with him," Marlene said when the healer left. "You should rest. I'll be back after lunch," Hermione nodded and watched Marlene go. It didn't take long for her to fall back asleep.

She ate lunch with Marlene and they spent most of the afternoon playing cards and reading crappy magazines when Remus came in.

"Hey. I can't stay long, or at all but Dumbledore wanted me to tell you that he'll be here tomorrow to bring you to the funeral at 1 pm," Remus said as soon as he walked in. He put a duffel bag on the floor by the foot of her bed.

"What is that?" Hermione asked.

"I figured you would need something to wear to the funeral so I just grabbed everything that was black that I could see and threw it in there," he shrugged.

"Thank you Remus," she smiled at the boy. He nodded and gave her a quick hug before he left. After that Marlene had to go with other trainees to do some tests so Hermione was alone until around 5 when Lily, James, Alice and Frank walked in.

"Hermione!" Lily cried when she saw the girl and barely managed to not pounce on her, instead settling for a tight side hug. Hermione hugged her back and did the same with the other three occupants of the room.

The quartet stayed for an hour, making her eat the gross mush labeled as dinner that Marlene brought in a half hour into their visit. Eventually, they all had to go and once again Hermione drifted off into sleep.

* * *

She woke up around 10 am and her healer was in the room within minutes. Marlene wasn't there today because she had gotten off for the funeral so Hermione was left with the old nurse again.

"I know you have a funeral today, but I don't know if I should release you," her healer said when he was done examining her.

"What?" She yelled out.

"Your blood count is still a lot lower than I had hoped it would be, and your knee is really swollen. Plus, going to something like a funeral after a tragic event is not good for healing, mentally or physically."

Hermione took a few deep breaths trying to calm herself down and not bite the healer's head off, but it took her a moment.

"I understand. But I was with them; we were together when this happened. I can't just not go to the funeral when it easily could have been me they would lower into the ground today," she saw him crack a little bit from his stoic mask so she pushed on. "Please? I'll stay in the wheelchair the whole time and I won't get out for a second."

"I don't believe that at all but fine. As long as you take blood replenishing potions before you go and you bring some with you, then you can go," Hermione smiled and thanked him before he left.

Using one of the crutches lying against her bed Hermione hobble-hopped to the bathroom, grabbing the duffle bag to get ready. She looked in the mirror and saw she really looked a mess, but after she showered (which took a lot of time and coordination on one leg), Hermione looked much better. She was still pale from the blood loss and under her eyes were dark, but she decided it wasn't too bad. Sitting on the toilet cover, she rooted through the bag of clothes brought by Remus. He definitely wasn't kidding when he said he grabbed everything black.

She thought she would go for pants, but she couldn't put anything tight over her knee so she wore a loose, black dress that fell slightly past her knee and put black ballet flats on her feet. She wrestled her hair into a French braid and decided it was good enough. She hobbled back into the main room, shrinking her duffel bag and stuffing it in a pocket on the wheel chair.

She was eating lunch and taking her potions soon, and not long after that Dumbledore was there as promised, wheeling Hermione out of the hospital.

Apparating to the funeral was difficult and Hermione honestly had no idea how he did it, but they didn't go towards the group yet.

"I am glad that you are ok," Dumbledore started from behind her, still holding onto the handles on her chair. "I am glad that I didn't have to open the notebook," he admitted. Taking that as the only apology she was going to get for being right Hermione decided letting it go was her best option.

"Me too," was all she said. He pushed her foreword and the headed towards the decently sized group on the otherwise empty lot. They were somewhere on Prewett property, which is where Gideon and Fabian wanted to be buried. There were a few rows of chairs set up to accommodate the number of people but Dumbledore wheeled her to near the front.

She didn't listen to most of the funeral. Dumbledore did the service but Hermione couldn't force herself to concentrate on his words. She was staring at a couple with five redheaded children with them. She stared at the Weasley's entranced, looking from Molly to Arthur and each of the children. She had to hold back the urge to not go and talk to them, only looking away when she locked eyes with Arthur, who gave her a sad smile before she dropped her eyes.

When the service was over, Hermione wheeled herself over to the freshly dug graves, ignoring her friends. She touched both of the headstones and pushed back the tears that were stinging her eyes. She let her head hang and tightened her grip on the headstones lightly.

"I'm sorry I couldn't save you," she whispered shakily. She took in a deep breath and started to slowly wheel herself to her friends when someone stood in her path. Looking up to the person's face she sucked in a breath when she realized she was looking at Molly Weasley.

"You were with them when it happened?" She questioned with no introduction and Hermione nodded slowly. "Did they- did they suffer?" She asked quietly.

"No," Hermione choked out and Molly nodded, a tear rolling down her face.

"Thank you," Molly said after some silence. "For trying to save them," she laid her hand on Hermione's shoulder for a moment and gave it a light squeeze before she walked back to her family. This time, Hermione couldn't help the few tears that leaked out of her eyes.

"Come on," James, Lily, Alice and Frank walked up to her and Hermione hurriedly wiped her face. James grabbed the handles on the back of the chair and the other three walked next to Hermione as James pushed her towards their group of friends. "Let's go home."

* * *

**A/N 2: Please don't hate me ah. I didn't want to kill them but it was something that had to be done. I had to show that as much as Hermione is changing things and doing good, she isn't perfect and she can't save everyone and yeah. But there's two weddings in the next chapter to make up for this. I hope. **


	17. Chapter 16

**A/N: When you get to the end, just remember that I gave you two weddings in the beginning…Thank you Gaby for all your wonderful help! Enjoy.**

* * *

_April 4th, 1979_

"Hermione, are you sure? I can push it back," Alice fretted over Hermione as the girls were walking into the venue for her wedding. Alice and Frank were getting married on one of Frank's family properties in Spain and the bridal and grooms party arrived today to start setting everything up. Frank and Alice's parents were both here as well.

"Alice, in two days you are getting married. I'm fine, it's been a month, I've been fine since three weeks ago," Hermione argued.

"Well, you do have a limp Hermione," Lily added.

"It is barely noticeable. I'm fine. You're not allowed to blame me for pushing your wedding back," Hermione smiled at her and Alice relented.

"Ok... Well, space is going to be a little tight so Marlene and Lily have to share a room and Hermione and Hestia so do you guys," Alice said, expecting an argument but none came and they followed Alice to their rooms.

The rest of the day consisted of the girls and the Marauders plus Frank's best man Edgar Bones setting stuff up outside for the wedding. Hermione officially met Alice's parents and Mrs. Longbottom, and Hermione finally understood why Neville was nervous all the time. Old Augusta made even Hermione nervous.

She spent the rest of the time setting up and trying to discretely watch Peter, who had become increasingly more absent as of late. Hermione was almost surprised to see him at Frank's wedding because he had been making up more and more excuses to get out of planned events.

Hermione walked over to where he was organizing chairs and started to help him.

"Hey, Peter!" she said sweetly after a few minutes. He looked up and nodded at her, going back to his work. "I haven't seen you in a while. How've you been?"

"I'm good," he mumbled after a few minutes. "I'm busy though, being Crouch's assistant is more work than I thought."

"You're working for Barty Crouch?" She yelled out trying and failing to not sound paranoid.

"Uh, yeah," Peter was confused. "Jr. not Senior though."

That was that then, Hermione thought. Logically, just because Peter was working for a Death Eater didn't mean he was one, but she was 99% sure now that he had turned on them. Barty must have been how Voldemort had gotten to him. This must be why he was so skittish and absent all the time. Quickly she reminded herself that she could still be wrong and she had no real proof that he had turned on them and she still was anxious about being his tipping point. If there was a chance for him to not turn at all then she would try to make it happen.

"I'm glad you're good then," she said after a beat. She was saved when Hestia called her over to try on the dresses one more time and she walked away from Peter with a small goodbye. He reciprocated the gesture but when her back was to him, his eyes bored into her back, taking on a slightly dark gleam.

* * *

_April 6th, 1979_

Hermione sat at the reception table that was now empty, and watched the scene around her. Alice was now officially a Longbottom and Hermione couldn't be happier for her. The wedding was beautiful and had gone off without a hitch. Alice looked radiant in her white lace dress and she had never seen a smile so wide on Frank in her life.

Moments like these made it all worth it, Hermione thought. Sure, they were in the middle of the war and things were getting worse everyday but that didn't mean anyone should be denied any amount of happiness that they could find. There wasn't an abundance of happiness and Hermione was happy to have an occasion to be happy.

Hermione was happy for the time being that she still had a limp because it allowed her to beg off dancing with anyone complaining that she was being a buzz-kill. She was however, surprised when Dumbledore came and sat next to her, she hadn't even known he was going to be here.

"Professor," Hermione nodded to him as he settled in. "I didn't know you were coming."

"Just stopped by to wish the happy couple good luck and drop off a small present for them," he winked at her.

"That was very nice of you. I talked to Peter two days ago and-"

"No," Dumbledore cut her off. Hermione looked at him shocked.

"No?" She questioned incredulous.

"You are at a wedding Hermione and you are going to enjoy it. I will gladly listen to whatever you have to say about Peter tomorrow. Go enjoy yourself."

Hermione grumbled at the old man. This was important and she really needed to tell him but she supposed one day wouldn't hurt. And some part of her kind of suspected that Dumbledore already knew the information that Hermione was going to divulge, which would make her angrier but Dumbledore did have an annoying habit of keeping things from people that he didn't think they needed to know.

She sighed when he gave her a light shove and walked over to where Marlene and Hestia were dancing. Peter could wait until tomorrow.

* * *

_May 15th 1979_

It had been over a month since Alice and Frank's wedding and Hermione felt stuck. She had told Dumbledore about Peter working for Barty Crouch Jr., and while Dumbledore admitted it was cause to watch him closer, it still might not mean anything.

It was what she thought Dumbledore would say but she couldn't shake the feeling that she had been too late to save him and she knew the pain that this was going to cause James, Sirius and Remus when they realized that their fellow Marauder had betrayed them for a nose-less psychopath.

She was also antsy because nothing was happening. There had been a few disappearances but it seemed like Voldemort was lying low and the thought scared Hermione. She wanted to make another move but until Regulus graduated and was safely out of Hogwarts, there was nothing for her to do. Instead, she was spending time making potions and dueling with random Order members to hone their skills and her own.

Currently, she was sitting in the study in HQ talking with Dumbledore, though it was more like arguing.

"Hermione, I need him to do this," Dumbledore stressed to her, "it's important."

"The last time you said that I ended up in the hospital and two people were dead!" She shot back hotly, before quickly registering what she said. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean that, honest."

Dumbledore looked a little unsure but eventually he nodded.

"Please, trust me on this Professor. If you send Remus to go sway the werewolves, everyone is going to assume it is him that turned traitor. He won't sway enough for it to be remotely worth it."

"I think you might be a little biased. Are you sure that your friendship isn't clouding your judgment?" He questioned.

"I'm sure, Professor. I know it might not seem like it, but this isn't all about me. If he does this, everyone will assume that it's him that turned on us and Peter will get off scot-free and everyone will be none the wiser. This is about a traitor going free," Hermione begged him to see her side of things.

"Alright, I won't send him in," Hermione smiled widely at the news. "Yet," he continued. "If we get confirmation either way about Peter then I will send him in. Deal?" He asked raising a silver eyebrow at her and peering at her over his small glasses.

She contemplated his deal and decided if it were proven either way about Peter, there would be no suspicion of a traitor so Remus wouldn't be in the cross hairs.

"Deal," she agreed smirking back at the older man.

* * *

_June 1st 1979_

Situated in the backyard of Potter Manor, which was located in Scotland, Lily Evans and James Potter tied the knot in front of all their friends and family, sans Petunia, though Hermione didn't think she was too bothered by the absence.

Hermione found the wedding absolutely beautiful. The couple said their own vows, and while Hermione would vehemently deny it until her dying breath, a tear or two managed to escape her eye at the words exchanged.

The reception, however, was absolutely ridiculous, or as the Marauders said, it was 'Marauder-style'. Sirius decided it was a good time to pull a prank and when Lily and James cut into the cake Lily narrowly avoided getting icing all over herself. The same couldn't be said for James, who hadn't seen anything coming and now had vanilla icing in his hair. James then retaliated by turning Sirius' hair pink which caused the two to play wrestle until Remus and Peter parted them, laughing to the amusement of the guests. It was great fun, and everybody laughed a lot.

Hermione spent some time with the groom's parents. She really enjoyed talking to Charlus and Dorea and she was glad for the chance to get to know them. The couple was somewhat older, having James late in life, but they seemed livelier and stronger than most. They had a slew of stories to tell Hermione about young James and Hermione thought it was perfect ammunition for if he ever threatened to prank her. Hermione skirted on the edge of the party wanting to stay out of the crosshairs of the pranksters because she had a feeling they weren't done. But when she saw Sirius, sans pink hair, dancing with Marlene she crept closer as inconspicuously as possible.

She wasn't close enough to hear what they were saying but she had a good visual view of them. Trying not to feel like an intruder on what looked like a private moment, but they were literally surrounded by people. Hermione watched their lips stop moving in speech and they started to move closer to each other, slowly but surely. When their lips finally met, Hermione turned away to give them privacy, a pleased smile on her face. She walked away to get some food and when she turned back five minutes later, they were gone.

Hestia came up to her ten minutes later questioning their absence.

"Have you seen Marlene? Or Sirius for that matter?"

"I think they're a bit occupied at the moment. You may want to brush up on your silencing spells," Hermione smirked at her friend watching her face change from confused to delight to disgust.

"Ew. I mean finally! But ew!" Hestia exclaimed. "The first time I walk in on something in that apartment I'm moving in with you!" She laughed out but Hermione could tell she was somewhat serious so she just laughed at her too.

"Ok, you can bunk with Remus," was all Hermione said in response and Hestia turned pink before swatting her in the arm.

"Come on, you idiot. Lets go distract Lily so she doesn't realize her maid of honor is missing."

Hermione linked arms with her and left to go find Lily and cater to whatever she needed. When Marlene and Sirius finally reappeared, she tried not to notice their tussled hair and rumpled clothes or the satisfied smirks on their faces.

* * *

_July 1st 1979_

"Thank you all for coming on such short notice. I know some of you were notified that early yesterday morning Amelia Bones was kidnapped from her home by Death Eaters," Dumbledore started in the kitchen of HQ that night. Hermione took in the shocked faces of her friends that hadn't been privy to the information. Dumbledore had told her yesterday and Hermione had been poring over notes ever since trying to find a trace of her to no luck.

"We have located her and we believe she is being held with a few more prisoners. We're going to need a decent amount of people to go for a rescue mission. There will be two groups, one to fight off the Death Eaters and one to extract the prisoners. The first group will be led by Emmeline Vance; with her will be Sirius Black, Dorcas Meadows, James Potter, Marlene McKinnon and Frank Longbottom. Alastor will be leading the defensive team; with him will be Edgar Bones, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Hermione Granger, Benjy Fenwick and Caradoc Dearborn. I need everyone else here to be ready to act if it is needed and to get potions together for those that are potentially injured."

Hermione thought she would hear some rejection from her friends that weren't going but everyone was surprisingly quiet which Hermione was thankful for. The next ten minutes were a flurry of motion as people got themselves ready for battle. Remus was in the basement showing everyone where everything was and getting ingredients to brew more potions that they could possibly need.

It was as they were leaving that Hermione noticed that someone was absent, so she walked over to Sirius who was standing with Marlene waiting for the go ahead.

"Hey, Sirius? Where is Peter?" She asked keeping her voice as level as possible.

"Oh, because this was so last-minute, he couldn't get off work. He's with Crouch," Sirius replied easily. For some reason that made a pit form in the bottom of Hermione's stomach and she couldn't stop her feeling of dread. She made a lame excuse and backed into the kitchen where Dumbledore was talking to Moody, Emmeline, Kingsley and Dorcas. Without preamble, she walked over to Dumbledore and whispered in his ear.

"Peter's not here. He's with Crouch. We've waited long enough," she hissed, not too angry at the man she was talking to, but at herself for letting Peter get so far without stopping him. She had been so concerned about being the thing that tipped him over the edge that she gave him the benefit of the doubt too many times.

Dumbledore's eyes widened slightly and nodded turning his mouth closer to Hermione's ear so he could return his sentiments.

"I agree. We will discuss this further when you return."

Hermione nodded and walked back out of the kitchen going to stand near Benjy and Caradoc who were waiting for Moody and Kingsley as well. Two minutes later they came out and she followed the group out to the Apparition point in the backyard.

When they got to the house where Amelia was being held a fight began almost immediately. They were pretty evenly matched in numbers but not skill and anytime Hermione chanced a quick look around she saw that everyone was still on their feet except for one Death Eater who was lying on the ground. Five minutes later the second group showed up and it took barely any time at all for them to get inside and to where the prisoners were.

That was when Hermione realized something was wrong. This was too easy even if they were prepared. Amelia Bones was a decently high value prisoner and it shouldn't have been this easy to get to her. She easily struck her Death Eater down and snapped his wand before bounding him. When she took his mask off she didn't even recognize the person behind the mask. This was a low-level Death Eater, probably graduated from Hogwarts this very year. She looked around thinking maybe it was just the one but she saw that now, all the Death Eaters were down and the Order members all had nothing more than a small scratch on them.

"This isn't right," Hermione said as the group dragged the unconscious Death Eaters to one spot. "This was too easy."

"You're right," Moody said gruffly. "Kingsley and I are going to bring these guys to the Ministry, you guys go back to HQ and see what the devil is happening."

Hermione nodded and the four of them Apparated back to HQ to see nothing out of the ordinary, if maybe it was a little too quiet. She followed Edgar into the kitchen and saw Dumbledore talking loudly with McGonagall. Edgar cleared his throat when he entered and the two spun around to look at them.

"What's going on?" Edgar asked with a slight edge to his voice.

"Where is everyone else?" Dumbledore deflected.

"Kingsley and Moody took the Death Eaters to the Ministry. The rescue group got in safely they should be here any minute now," Caradoc answered for him.

"That was fast," McGonagall raised an eyebrow and Hermione knew the professor had realized that something was not right and she wondered what the two had been arguing about.

"They were all inexperienced Death Eaters. That's why we came back so fast. We thought something must be happening if they put such low-level Death Eaters guarding Amelia," Edgar answered.

"See Albus?" McGonagall yelled out. "I told you it wasn't a diversion."

"What wasn't a diversion?" Hermione asked, a sick feeling in her stomach.

"There was a Dark Mark located in Scotland. We haven't been able to identify the house yet. I didn't want to send anyone out in case it wasn't real and it was just a diversion to deplete our sources."

"Ok so, let's go. We're not hurt. Or at least I'm not," Hermione pushed and she heard the three men next to her agree with her sentiment. Reluctantly, Dumbledore nodded and the six of them left as quickly as they came, apparating to the village closest to where the Dark Mark was spotted. A passing wizard saw Dumbledore and pointed up a hill some ways out of the village and they started walking towards the house.

Ten minutes later when they were only a little ways outside the gates Hermione heard Dumbledore curse under his breath.

"What is it Professor?" Hermione asked, not sure if she was supposed to be able to hear him but she wanted to know what he knew.

"I just realized who lives here," Dumbledore said as they walked through the gates. The house, or rather mansion was burned black on one side and almost all the windows were broken. One part of the roof was caving in and there were scorch marks on the lawn. The Dark Mark loomed over the house and the only sign of life was a cat that was hiding in a bush. "Maybe you should wait out here Hermione."

"Why?" She asked confused. All of her friends were safe for the time being, and the only other people she really knew were the Weasley's and she would recognize that house from a mile away.

"Charlus and Dorea Potter live here," he answered and Hermione sucked in a breath. She hoped by some miracle they were still alive but she sincerely doubted that given the state of the house and she knew that this was going to destroy James. He was an only child and had always been close to his parents.

However, when Dumbledore looked at her Hermione shook her head, as if she would ever wait outside while something was happening. The group followed Dumbledore into the house and they immediately had to step over the bodies of two dead Death Eaters. They followed the trail of destruction where they had to step over the body of another Death Eater on the steps leading upstairs. They walked down the hall and the first body they saw was Charlus Potter. He was laying face up, wand discarded at his side and his eyes were open wide, dead and staring into nothing. They encountered the body of one more Death Eater before they came across Dorea's body lying half in her room, half in the hallway, on her side.

Dumbledore sighed and Hermione swore she saw him wipe a tear away, which she would never blame him for. She herself was failing to keep her tears in her eyes. The Potters were a little on the older side and they must have known Dumbledore for some time. McGonagall laid a comforting hand on his shoulder and he placed his own hand over hers, squeezing and offering her comfort as well. Hermione sighed heavily as Dumbledore walked away to contact the Ministry.

It was ironically, Kingsley and Moody who showed up with heavy hearts as they began processing everything with three other Aurors. The six other Order members left and as they walked down the stairs Hermione wondered how they were going to tell James and Sirius, whom she knew looked up to the Potters like parents since he had been staying there. She saw the Potters cat as they were leaving the gates and without any real thought picked him up, thinking James could take him or she would if he didn't want him. No one questioned her when she picked the cat up but she did see McGonagall give her a strained smile.

When they walked back into HQ Hermione stayed at the back so no one would see the cat.

"Where did you guys go?" Dorcas asked as soon as they walked in. From her spot behind Caradoc Hermione couldn't really see anything but she was used to everyone's voice by now.

"Did you get Amelia out?" Dumbledore asked tiredly.

"Yes. She's upstairs resting, she's a little banged up, mostly bruises and a few cuts but she's going to be fine. There were three other low level Ministry workers being held with her. We brought them to St. Mungo's where there families met them."

"That's good," Dumbledore nodded, his voice trailing off at the end. "James, Sirius, Lily would you please come with me?" He asked in a low voice.

The smiled from a successful rescue mission wiped off their faces and the slowly got up and followed Dumbledore into the kitchen.

"Hermione?" Remus asked her, finally spotting her when Caradoc moved to follow Edgar upstairs. "Why do you have the Potters cat?" He asked. His voice was normal at first but it took on a slightly hysterical note at the end as if he knew the answer already. Hermione let the cat down and took Sirius' vacated seat next to Marlene on the couch.

"The... uh, the rescue was a diversion. That's why it was so easy. They higher-ups were busy doing something else."

"What?" He asked quickly, his voice rising in concern. "Who?"

Hermione hung her head in sadness and then they all heard James cry out from the kitchen and she knew that he knew, and now everyone else did too.


End file.
